Prevention of Terrorism Acts following an outcry in parliament and the press. In 1985 an edition of BBC's Real Lives series ("At the Edge of the Union") was temporarily withdrawn under government pressure. BBC governors found themselves in conflict with management and the corporation's journalists went on strike for a day. The programme was later transmitted with minor changes. Coverage of Sinn Féin by the BBC before the ban was minimal. In 1988 Sinn Féin was only heard or seen on television 93 times, had only 17 of the 633 formal BBC interviews as compared to 121 interviews with the Conservative Party and 172 with the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the civil service, and were never interviewed in the studio like many other participants. However, after the ban there was a steep decline in coverage of Sinn Féin and republican viewpoints, with television appearances being reduced to 34 times in the following year, and the delays and uncertainties caused by ambiguities, voice-overs and subtitles often lead to coverage and films being dropped entirely. The BBC's Head of Editorial Policy, Richard Ayre, looked for ways to allow the continuation of news reporting on the subject, during a time when 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland were a matter of great importance and interest. He established that the ban could not prevent the BBC's use of actors to speak Adams' and other Republicans' words. The net effect of the ban was to increase publicity. October 1998: Richard Bacon cocaine controversy On 18 October 1998, a presenter of the children's television programme Blue Peter, Richard Bacon, was in the headlines when it emerged he had taken cocaine. He was released from his BBC contract immediately. 2001–2010 2003–2004: Death of Dr David Kelly, Hutton Report, and Butler Report In May 2003, the defence correspondent of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Andrew Gilligan, quoted a government official who stated that the British government had "sexed up" a dossier concerning weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, against the wishes of the intelligence services. A newspaper report claimed that Alastair Campbell (the Prime Minister's Director of Communications and Strategy), was responsible. The government strongly denied the claims and this prompted an investigation by parliament. A Ministry of Defence scientist, Dr David Kelly, was named as the alleged source of the news item, which led to official sources suggesting that Dr Kelly was not a credible source. The