Channel 4 News's Jon Snow springs to the BBC's defence:

"The likelihood is that the BBC and its fate will now come to dominate the debate rather than the issues surrounding the war.

"As regards the BBC, whatever mistakes were made, government clashes with the state broadcaster are dangerous, there are implications for every journalist. This is very dicey territory.

"We could find that the death of David Kelly ends up robbing Britain of the best public service broadcaster in the world. To the great joy of several newspaper magnates and their empires."

So does media commentator, Emily Bell:

The overall impression, albeit a highly personal and biased one, is that the BBC is still more concerned with the dissemination of unspun fact than either Mr Blair or Mr Campbell.