Sky News is threatening to lodge an official complaint with the Ministry of Defence, after accusing BBC News of an "appalling ... [and] childish breach of etiquette" for allegedly breaking a pool interview agreement yesterday.
Executives at Sky News are furious about how the BBC dealt with an interview with the head of the British Army, Sir Richard Dannatt, on the decision not to send Prince Harry to Iraq.
In an email sent to a BBC News executive yesterday, the Sky News managing editor, Simon Cole, claimed that the corporation failed to alert Sky to the fact that interview was to be pooled - shared with other news broadcasters.
Mr Cole alleged in the email to BBC newsgathering executive Jim Buchanan that, at one stage yesterday, a BBC newsdesk employee told Sky News that they did not know that the interview was meant to be pooled.
The BBC then proceeded to run the interview 10 minutes prior to the 5pm embargo on BBC News 24, Mr Cole added.
The email went on to claim that Sky News was only given the interview at 5.07pm, by which time it had broken the story of Prince Harry not going to Iraq by using its own contacts.
"You told us NOTHING except that there wd [sic] be a 17.00 playout of Dannatt," Mr Cole said in the email, which was circulated to the head of BBC News, Helen Boaden, and Alison Ford, the UK news editor, BBC newsgathering.
"You gave no hint of the story whatsoever. We sourced the story from a contact and broke it - how could we break an embargo if we didn't know what the story was? You then followed our lead. You then used Aston quotes from the pool interview - unfair," he added.
"You then used the interview at 16.50 before the 17.00 embargo and didn't play it to us simultaneously - unfair. We didn't get a playout until 17.07 - unfair.
"In my view this is an appalling breach of pool etiquette and a childish game of sour grapes. After your comments yday [sic] about pools I find it incredible that you could lower yourself to this level Jim. We are making an official complaint to the MoD."
This is not the first time that Sky News and BBC News have been in dispute over pooled interviews.
In February, the BBC was accused of acting in bad faith after slapping a "BBC exclusive" strap on a TV interview with the widow of lance corporal Matty Hull, the soldier killed in a 2003 Iraq war friendly fire incident.
Geraldine McCool, the lawyer acting for Susan Hull, said that the interview was only given to the BBC "on the basis that it was pooled and available to all".
However, the BBC ran the interview with Ms Hull on News 24 as a "BBC exclusive", later removing the strapline following complaints from Mrs Hull and other broadcasters.
The BBC had not commented by the time of publication on the latest row.
A Sky News spokesman said: "This was a private communication between Sky News and BBC News managers."
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