Tony Hall, former head of BBC News and now running the Royal Opera House, makes his case for becoming the next Director General, as reported by The Observer:

Halt Hutton inquisition, urges former BBC chief

Tony Hall, opera boss tipped for director-general, says disciplining can harm faith in news coverage

Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
Sunday April 11, 2004
The Observer

Tony Hall, the former BBC news chief credited with reviving the fortunes of the beleaguered Royal Opera House since he took over as executive director in 2001, has launched a scathing attack on the corporation's response to the Hutton inquiry.

Hall, considered one of the strongest outside candidates for the vacant job of BBC director-general, has called upon the newly appointed chairman, Michael Grade, to halt the internal investigation set up following the suicide of government scientist Dr David Kelly.

'I hope Michael Grade stops this disciplinary process now because news is central to the BBC,' said Hall, 53, who last week surprised the arts world by offering the best tickets at Covent Garden for only £10.

Speaking on the sensitive subject for the first time, he said news coverage was still the core of the BBC output and provided its international voice. The reputation of the corporation and its reporters would be badly damaged, he warned, if Grade did not take quick action to prevent the disciplinary inquiry from alienating news staff.

The BBC's 'internal process', which was launched by the acting director-general, Mark Byford, has provoked strong reaction from top names in BBC news, many of whom have privately threatened to walk out if management continues to investigate mistakes made last spring when Radio 4's Andrew Gilli gan, the Today programme's defence correspondent, reported allegations that the Government had prosecuted the war in Iraq without believing in the presence of weapons of mass destruction.

'There needs to be a period of reflection into the editorial issues,' Hall conceded, but he added that the quality of BBC news journalism remained high, and so the inquiry should stop while trust in the BBC remained high too.

'There are two investigations going on at the BBC: the one being run by Ron Neil [a retired BBC executive], which seems to me to be a perfectly reasonable look into what the BBC can do differently in the future, and then the disciplinary one, in which people are being called in to account for themselves, sometimes with lawyers present. That should be stopped,' he said.

Welcoming the appointment of Grade, the experienced television veteran, to the chair of the BBC's governors, Hall went on to argue that the BBC, like the opera house, should make live musical performances available to a wider audience.

'We have to get the arts to be seen much more like sport,' said Hall. 'If the BBC could use its new channel BBC4 to get more live performance on television, that would be a very good thing.

'The BBC has lost contact with that sense of live performance and, since it is a publicly funded organisation like ours, it would be the right place for the opera house to go with our productions.' Hall, who ran the BBC news operation for eight years, has tackled the financial crisis at Covent Garden and, with the help of his popular lieutenants, ballet director Monica Mason and musical director Anthony Pappano, he has presided over a period of improved morale and better industrial relations.

In spite of mixed critical reviews for the work, Hall has sailed the ROH into calmer waters by streamlining management and increasing commercial development. 'It has been a bit like a mole coming out into the sunshine for the first time,' said Hall of the opera house's reprieve from 'basket case' status.

He and his team removed a complex system of rival boards and have brought in valuable sponsorships, such as the £1 million Travelex deal announced last week that will allow punters to sit in opera seats worth £175 for £10.

One hundred tickets will be available on a Monday from this autumn and must be bought singly, but the ROH has not yet decided how to distribute them. A lottery is thought to be the favoured method.

Hall has also announced the first reduction in the price of ballet seats and confirmed that, for the fourth year running, half the seats at every performance will cost £50 or less. More shows, including Loren Maazel's new opera version of Nineteen Eighty-four, will have a top ticket price of £50.

'When you look at the scale of our grant, it is important that as many people come here as possible,' he said.

'In the past, I think, people felt there was money going into an opera house that was being enjoyed by only a few. But don't give us the old cliché about it being a minority sport - you just have to go to a matinée here. It is something anyone can enjoy.'