Mark Thompson is new BBC director general

[Dover]

Mark Thompson is new BBC director general

AFP< SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2004 04:49:28 AM >

LONDON: The BBC, the world's biggest public broadcaster on Friday named Mark Thompson as its new director general.

The 46-year-old worked at the BBC for 20 years, eventually becoming director of television, before leaving to take up the chief executive role at Channel 4 in 2001.

At his new job Thompson replaces Greg Dyke, who resigned after a judicial report into the suicide of respected defence ministry weapons expert David Kelly faulted the corporation for lax editorial management...cont'd >

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/690989.cms

_________

BBC's boss hears Sonia's 'inner voice'
RASHMEE Z. AHMED

TIMES NEWS NETWORK< SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2004 09:58:50 PM >

LONDON: In a sign that Sonia Gandhi's inner voice has spoken strongly around the world and been listened to in unexpected quarters, the BBC's brand new boss, Mark Thompson, took up his appointment with the words: "It's what Sonia Gandhi called my inner voice. I decided it was a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Thompson invoked Gandhi's words to justify accepting a job he had previously announced he would not take.
Till late on Friday, the 46-year-old chief executive of Channel 4 television, denied he would move across to the BBC if appointed its director- general.

Like Sonia, he waited to be declared chief editor of the world's largest, most respected broadcaster before self-confessedly listening to his inner voice. Unlike Sonia, he decided to take the job.

Thompson, an old BBC hand, takes over the organisation at a crucial time. The appointment, hailed by the British government, comes just months after the BBC lost its chief editor Greg Dyke in a massive media cull. At a historically low point in its relations with the British government, the BBC was criticised for its coverage of the reasons Tony Blair helped the US invade Iraq....>>


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/692459.cms

[pollock]

1. This just in:

government faults BBC for telling truth.