Five Live defends MacKenzie appearances

Bob Shennan, BBC Radio Five Live controller, has defended the station's use of former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie.

A producer on BBC Radio Four wrote a letter to the corporation's in-house magazine, Ariel, last week about the matter. It criticised the station's using the outspoken right-winger as a guest.

Shennan replied in this week's edition: "I realise that Kelvin MacKenzie is a polarising influence and that some people find his presence on BBC outlets offensive.

"Like other BBC channels we have used him in programmes occasionally, drawing on his background and experience as a tabloid editor. But to say we never question his record or views is simply not true."

In particular the original letter highlighted The Sun's controversial coverage of the Hillsborough stadium disaster under MacKenzie's editorship.

Mr Shennan defended: "In January, 5 Live Breakfast prominently featured his comments on Question Time about Hillsborough, the fact that he was robustly challenged about his paper's reporting of the tragedy and that he had indicated the paper may have been wrong about aspects of its coverage of the disaster.

"We reported that he had still refused to apologise for the coverage and that he'd admitted he didn't know whether some reported details were true or not."