In 1984 BBC Panorama made a programme called Maggie’s Militant Tendency, which investigated far-right extremism in the Conservative Party. It was the subject of successful libel action by Tory MPs Neil Hamilton, Gerald Howarth and others, and led to a major crisis for the BBC. The Director General, Alasdair Milne, lost his job over it.
At the time it was alleged that the BBC was sunk by dodgy evidence provided by Searchlight. That was completely untrue, and when these allegations appeared in two national newspapers in the wake of the BBC paying damages to settle the case, we soon put a stop to it.
Inaccurate reporting
We explained it all the magazine in 1986 when the BBC surrendered the action, and Gerry Gable wrote about it in the final print issue of Searchlight last year, reproducing the article and statement we issued at the time.
Unfortunately, some of that earlier, inaccurate, reporting has found its way into recent coverage of Gerry’s death. So, to finally (and hopefully) put the matter to bed, we are reproducing here the earlier article and statement from1986:
“WHEN THE BBC settled the recent libel action against Panorama brought by Tory MPs Neil Hamilton and Gerald Howarth, some highly misleading and damaging statements about Searchlight’s involvement in the making of the programme appeared in the press. Two stood out: an editorial in the Daily Telegraph written (but not signed) by Simon Heffer, and a column in the News of the World by Woodrow Wyatt.
“Despite their criticisms of the BBC for broadcasting unchecked statements, neither saw fit to contact Searchlight to establish the facts before they penned their pieces. When we telephoned them to ask why this basic step had been overlooked, Wyatt slammed the ‘phone down, and Heffer would not even admit authorship of his piece.
“To put the record straight, Searchlight issued a press statement, stating the facts of our involvement. It was sent to all major newspapers, and the untruths stopped. For our readers’ benefit, we are reproducing it here:
‘Over the last week a certain amount of press coverage on the case of Neil Hamilton v the BBC has commented on the involvement of Searchlight magazine and in particular one of its journalists, Gerry Gable, in the production of ‘Maggie’s Militant Tendency’, the Panorama programme which led to Mr Hamilton MP and Gerald Howarth MP taking legal action against the BBC.
‘Most of the comment on Searchlight’s role has been inaccurate and at times highly defamatory. We are making this statement to put the record straight. Having done so, we shall give serious consideration to legal action ourselves if any of the defamatory stories published in the last few days are repeated.
‘When the Young Conservatives were preparing their report into right wing activity in the Conservative Party, upon which the Panorama programme makers drew heavily, they took material that had been published over the years in Searchlight. They approached us to determine whether any of it had been followed by libel proceedings and we were able to tell them it had not. This was the limit of our involvement.
‘Our assistance to Panorama was confined to information about Harvey Proctor MP, early information about the Monday Club, a membership list of the racist organisation Powellight, material on the racist umbrella group WISE and background information on the Italian fascist party MSI.
‘Almost all the information about alleged connections between Messrs. Hamilton and Howarth and the far-right group Tory Action, and all the information about the alleged incidents of goose-stepping by Tory MPs including Neil Hamilton during a visit to Berlin, was obtained through Panorama’s own sources and did not come from Searchlight.
‘These allegations have been central to comment in recent days about the ensuing legal action, but It is utterly untrue that Searchlight was involved in ‘fabricating’ stories which later ‘proved to be untrue’ as has been alleged.
‘In particular a leading article in the Daily Telegraph (23 October) and a piece in Woodrow Wyatt’s column in the News. of the World (26 October), both of which asserted that this information came from Searchlight, are highly damaging to the journal’s reputation.
‘Both made play of Searchlight journalist Gerry Gable’s former membership of the Communist Party though neither saw fit to mention that this ended almost 25 years ago.
‘We trust that now the facts have been put on record, such mischievous allegations will not be repeated again. Should they be, we shall not hesitate to seek legal advice with a view to bringing proceedings for libel.’”
