Information Commissioner's decision overruled: minutes of BBC Governors' meeting to be released

Information Commissioner's decision overruled: minutes of BBC Governors' meeting to be released

The Information Tribunal has ordered the BBC to release the minutes of the BBC Governors' meeting which resulted in the resignations of the chairman and director-general of the BBC.

The minutes reveal that after the resignation of the chairman Gavyn Davies, the director-general, Greg Dyke, asked for the board's full support and was "shattered" when he didn't get it. The minutes quote - but don't attribute - Governors' comments that Mr Dyke would have been a lame-duck director general, and that his relationship with the Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell was poor.

The journalist Heather Brooke and the Guardian newspaper had originally requested the information under the Freedom of Information Act in 2005 but were refused. The minutes were withheld by the BBC under section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act.

No major shocks from Dyke minutes (BBC website, 12 January 2007)

Tribunal decision: Guardian Newspapers and Heather Brooke v Information Commissioner (8 January 2007)

BBC caves in and publishes minutes of Hutton meetings (Press Gazette, 11 January 2007) (Includes an abridged version of the minutes)