Right to reply: Why the BBC still matters across the world

Reading Fraser’s post last night, you’d be forgiven for thinking the BBC is running up the white flag in terms of its global reporting. Yesterday — as Gaddafi was breathing his last in Sirte — Coffee House was praising Sky and Al Jazeera, and pouring scorn on the BBC’s “stifling bureaucracy”, accusing us of being “short sighted”, “slow-moving” and being constantly “bested” by others in terms foreign news. There’s only one problem with Fraser’s analysis: the facts don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Timing is everything. Yesterday the BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse was the only UK broadcaster in Sirte. On the biggest day of the eight-month story, only the BBC was at the site where Gaddafi was killed — not much point in racing to Tripoli if you’re not there for the death of the dictator.