BBC director general Greg Dyke has thanked the Evening Press at York for one of the best summers of his life.

He was guest speaker at the paper's prestigious annual Business Awards and recalled how he sued the paper in the early 1970s when he was a student at York University.

He told the 165 captains of commerce and their guests: "They published a story about me writing obscene articles for the student newspaper.

"I did not write any and I had nothing to do with the obscene cartoon about a nun. So I asked for an apology."

The paper did not apologise but as he had been a journalist before becoming a student, he knew about libel so he sued.

"I got my apology," he said. "And I got £250. When you think my student grant for a year was £450, you can imagine that was an awful lot of money. My girlfriend and I had a fantastic summer on it."

Dyke: sued paper

He took the opportunity to defend the BBC against critics who questioned the need for publicly funded broadcasting in a world of massive choice in which the commercial market could provide all that viewers, listeners or line users might want.

He said: "I believe that the role of the BBC will be more important in a decade's time, not less, because as the result of market fragmentation, particularly in the television industry, the commercial market will not be able to afford to provide many of the services it has historically produced."

Evening Press editor Liz Page said: "It was quite a coup to have the director general of the BBC as our guest speaker, even if he did sue the paper 30 years ago.

"It acknowledges the high esteem in which these awards are held. They have been growing in stature for the last ten years and bring us much closer to the business community in the area we serve."

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