Biased reporting and the BBC

From Mr David Wyatt

Sir: Some 30-odd years ago when the then (Conservative) government was going through one of those fits of paranoia about the BBC which periodically infects governments, and from which Jonathan Aitken and others seem to be suffering today, I dined quatre with the then director-general of the BBC.

"Tell me, Mr Greene," our hostess greeted her guest, "are you a member of the Communist Party, or only a sympathiser?" He answered politely that he thought it his duty to be "agin the government" of whatever stripe. This seemed to me then, and still seems to me today, a wholly tenable position for the BBC.

Yours sincerely,

DAVID WYATT

London, NW1

28 March