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`Downing Street hacked into BBC computers'

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON AUG 11. Allegations about the Blair Government's penchant for news management were back in the headlines today after a veteran BBC journalist accused Downing Street of "hacking'' into the corporation's newsroom computer and attempting to influence news bulletins.

John Simpson, BBC's World Affairs Editor, said the BBC investigated complaints of hacking after reporters complained that Downing Street appeared to know the contents of forthcoming bulletins even before they were put out. Reporters were "rung up'' by officials to lobby for changes in their stories.

Downing Street dismissed the allegation as "complete rubbish'' and "utter drivel'' but critics demanded that the BBC disclose the findings of its inquiry. "If the allegations are correct, then No 10 and Labour staff seem to have been complicit in a criminal act,'' the Tory leader, David Davis, said.

Mr. Simpson makes the allegation in his autobiography "News from No Man's Land'' insisting "I have spoken to colleagues who are certain it has happened'', though he hastens to explain that "no conclusive evidence'' of hacking was found by the BBC's internal inquiry.

``One BBC correspondent claims that when he has written scripts for forthcoming bulletins, he has been rung up by Downing Street before they are broadcast and lobbied on certain points,'' he says emphasising that this "didn't happen just once or twice''.

However, he adds that proving that someone at Downing Street illegally hacked into the BBC computer to read news scripts is "more or less impossible''. At the same time, he is convinced that "there do seem to have been some unacceptable goings-on''.

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