Gilligan faces carpeting over e-mail

Andrew Gilligan faces a major carpeting by his BBC bosses for revealing Dr David Kelly as a source of Newsnight reports, the inquiry heard this afternoon.

BBC chairman Gavyn Davies was shown an email the reporter had sent to members of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee suggesting questions MPs could ask the weapons expert. At that time the BBC was refusing to confirm or deny that Dr Kelly had been the source of Gilligan's controversial report on the Today programme.

But in his email Gilligan appears to name Dr Kelly as the source of a similar report on Newsnight by BBC science correspondent Susan Watts. Mr Davies said: "I certainly believe it is wrong for any journalist to divulge the source of another journalist's work. I believe Mr Gilligan is putting in another witness statement on this matter to the inquiry.

"I think it is something the director-general (Greg Dyke) may wish to look at and come to the board of governors on." He added: "I don't know how Mr Gilligan could have done that, as he didn't know Susan Watts's source... may be there was a misunderstanding - I don't know."

He went on: "I enormously regret anything that happened at this stage which may have increased the pressure on Dr Kelly." Mr Davies finished by asking to place on record the Corporation's "regret" at Dr Kelly's death and sympathy for his family.