John Humphrys' fury at 'ban on exclusives'

Radio 4 presenter John Humphrys was on a collision course with bosses today after acting director general Mark Byford claimed that exclusive stories on the BBC were "not appropriate".

Mr Byford, speaking on Radio 4's Feedback, said the corporation's job is "first and foremost to report news in a reliable, accurate and impartial manner".

He added: "The notion of exclusive here, exclusive there, exclusive-everywhere is not appropriate for the BBC in the sense it is giving the flavour of competing with newspapers or whatever in bringing original exclusives."

But in an interview with the Radio Times today, Humphrys said: "It has been suggested that the BBC shouldn't break news. What are we meant to do - discover a story and let someone else report it? One thing Today exists for is to put ministers under pressure so they tell you something they didn't mean to. We don't have a 30-second delay while an editor listens to every word and orders, 'Stop!'. That would be preposterous and the end of the programme."

BBC management and governors were criticised in the Hutton report over Andrew Gilligan's Today story about the Government dossier on Iraq's WMD. Mr Byford's comments will be seen as a sign that exclusive stories are on the way out at the BBC, despite a legacy of award-winning investigative journalism.

Mr Byford added: "The sense of exclusive here, there and everywhere gives a sense of over-competitiveness, over self-confidence that that's its job, when what people really come to the BBC for is trust and reliability." He has called for a line to be drawn under the

episode, after the resignations of director-general Greg Dyke and chairman Gavyn Davies and the apology to the Government.

Humphrys, however, said of Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell: "He has tried to destabilise the BBC in a pretty tacky way. Maybe he thought we were an easy target because we're dependent on the government of the day.

"He suggests, preposterously, that I sneer at ministers... and he damned near accused me of lying. The public can make their own judgments." Humphrys said the Today team will "hold our nerve" and he refused to become more careful "because that implies we haven't been careful in the past.

"It's wrong to say we'll change because a judge said we made a mistake. We knew we had. It would be bizarre if we didn't occasionally, broadcasting live three hours a day, six days a week."