Newspaper to fight BBC veto on star columnists

The BBC could face a showdown with the Sunday Telegraph over its plans to prevent its star presenters and journalists writing columns for newspapers.

The corporation announced yesterday it planned to stop all staff and freelance presenters writing columns about contentious current affairs issues in the wake of Andrew Gilligan's article in the Mail on Sunday, which sparked the political row which led to the Hutton Inquiry.

But Dominic Lawson, the editor of the Sunday Telegraph, has warned the BBC it will have to fork out a "huge sum" to buy big name John Simpson out of his contract with the paper.

Lawson said Simpson, the BBC's world affairs correspondent, was on a "very long contract" with his paper, adding the BBC would have to compensate the journalist if it forced him to choose between his TV and newspaper work.

But the corporation said it would not offer financial compensation to any staff forced to give up writing for the press.

Richard Sambrook, director of BBC news, said the corporation could not compromise on the issue of trust.

He said: "When our journalists write in papers it is seen as an extension of their work for the BBC - yet columns and newspaper articles on controversial issues depend on expressing opinions to the extent which is often incompatible with the BBC's impartiality."