Wednesday, April 21, 1999 Published at 20:21 GMT 21:21 UK
Blair: BBC editor under Serb instruction
Tony Blair: John Simpson "can say whatever he likes"
Prime Minister Tony Blair has accused BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson of writing reports on the crisis in Kosovo "under the instruction" of the Serbian authorities.
Mr Blair then insisted his government had not "defamed" Mr Simpson by criticising his coverage of the conflict in the Balkans.
His comments come after government officials were reported to be unhappy with the way they felt Mr Simpson had accepted Serb-originated reports on how Nato's air strikes seemed to be having the effect of uniting Yugoslavs behind President Milosevic.
Mr Simpson is one of the few journalists from a Nato country still reporting from the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade.
The BBC says Mr Simpson's film packages are monitored by the Serbian authorities but his "straight voice reports on radio and TV are not, and that is made clear".
The government's criticisms of Mr Simpson's reporting emerged in The Times newspaper last week.
The paper reported that officials had accused Mr Simpson of "swallowing Serb propaganda".
In a statement issued last Friday, the BBC said "the facts don't bear out these allegations".
Responding to the criticisms last week Mr Simpson said: "It just goes with the turf."
Speaking after Mr Blair a Downing Street spokesman said he recognised reporters like Mr Simpson "are doing an extremely difficult job working in very difficult conditions, and clearly enjoy very little freedom".
He added: "I'm not saying that John Simpson is a part of the Serb media machine but the level of access journalists enjoy over in Serbia is very, very limited and clearly they are unable to report in a way they would want."
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