Madam, - I was on the last day of a work placement at BBC News and Current Affairs in Manchester when the news came through that BBC's director general, Greg Dyke had resigned. I looked around me at hard working and diligent people doing their very best to ensure that the public are kept informed of the latest events, and thought that it is a sad day for democracy.
It is scandalous that the Hutton Report condemned the BBC and cleared Tony Blair and his government in their dealings in the Kelly affair. Nobody could have predicted that the report could have been so one-sided, when clearly two sides were to blame.
While BBC editorial policy was at fault, accusing the BBC of blatantly lying is a bit rich coming from Mr Blair. It is his government that has turned Number 10 Downing Street into a notorious spin machine. It was he, along with President Bush, who insisted on going to war in Iraq to prevent Saddam Hussein unleashing his weapons of mass destruction - weapons that increasingly look a product of fiction. It is the Blair government machine that has brought the world's largest broadcaster to its knees.
It is Blair who has fomented scepticism in the public about the valuable work that journalists do. And I fear that it might be he who will have the blood of free speech and democracy on his hands. - Yours, etc.,
STEPHEN O'SHEA, Hallahoise, Castledermot, Co Kildare.