The Leveson Inquiry into media ethics and intrusions into privacy has heard today from the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, that when the hacking of mobile phones become known at the News of The World he immediately ordered a review to establish whether this had been the case at the BBC too.

No doubt many BBC journalists were upset to be put under the spotlight like this by management – they value their journalistic integrity extremely highly – but the Director General was right.

There are times when even the most obvious fact needs pointing out and in this case it was essential to show the BBC holds the high ground and that it could prove it’s house was in order – and to show all this BEFORE it was asked.

As my favorite quote on PR by John Rockefeller says “Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing”.

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