Ministry of defence chiefs
ordered an audit of all employees whose jobs involve contact with the media.
The audit, revealed in an internal memo released under the freedom
of information act (FOIA), followed Lord Hutton’s inquiry into the death
of the weapons inspector, Dr David Kelly, who had been the source for a report
by Andrew Gilligan on Radio 4’s Today programme claiming that
Tony Blair’s government misled the public about the intelligence on
Iraq’s nuclear capability.
The inquiry found that Kelly had contacts with journalists other than
Gilligan, and discussed similar issues with at least one of them.
The MoD’s personnel director, Richard Hatfield, wrote in the
memo, dated March 22, 2004, that the department ordered an “immediate
audit to identify all posts which involve media contact and ensure post-holders
understand their responsib-ilities.”
The audit identified 40 departments or sections of the MoD that were
authorised to brief the media.
The MoD also updated guidance it issued staff, in the form of a defence
council Instruction, over “contacts with the media”. This was
also released under FOIA and would, said Hatfield in his memo, “reflect
with more simplicity and clarity the rules on contact with the media and the
procedures for gaining authorisation to speak to the media.”
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MoD
staff to receive secret Commons ‘steer’
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