NEWS STORY : BBC Make Serious Allegations about the Conduct of Mark Davies and Post Office PR Team
STORY
The BBC have made serious allegations about the conduct of Mark Davies, who led the PR campaign to stop the BBC reporting about the ongoing Post Office scandal of the Horizon project. The BBC allege that Davies sought to threaten them not to broadcast a Panorama investigation into the Post Office and claimed he wrote in documentation:
“While we are able to withstand this current level of interest, it is resource intensive. We have made representations to the director of BBC News and Current Affairs”.
The BBC said that their senior management were approached by Davies, noting:
“PR boss Mark Davies fired off complaints to ever more senior managers at the BBC, and expensive external lawyers were hired with public money to send letters threatening to sue Panorama.”
The BBC said that a spokesperson for Davies said:
“Our client was doing his job”.
In an interview transcribed on the Post Office Trial web-site, Davies attacked Conservative MP James Arbuthnot for wanting a deeper investigation, saying:
“It’s an extremely serious charge John and, clearly, we reject it outright and it’s very regrettable some of the things that Mr Arbuthnot has said this morning.”
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