It’s not easy to get the BBC to apologise for making a major blunder, but it happens.

For example today:

The BBC has apologised over reports claiming millions of pounds raised by Band Aid was used to buy arms.

In March, World Service’s Assignment said cash raised by charities to help Ethiopia had been diverted by rebels.

The BBC has admitted that Assignment gave the impression that Band Aid and Live Aid money had been diverted despite no evidence to back that up.

It apologised for further TV, radio and online reports which actually stated that Band Aid money had paid for arms.

The BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit found in its ruling that there was no evidence to support such statements and that "they should not have been broadcast".

"The BBC wishes to apologise unreservedly to the Band Aid Trust for the misleading and unfair impression which was created," it added.

As apologies go, this one is unusually full and self-flagellating and widely broadcast on many different BBC channels/prgrammes. Well done the BBC for not – at long last – pulling its punches on its own nose.

And lo, our good friend Brian Barder was Ambassador in Ethiopia in the 1980s and has been helping push to bring about this outcome:

Today Sir Brian Barder, the British ambassador to Ethiopia between 1982 and 1986, said: "I welcome the BBC’s far-reaching apology to the Band Aid Trust for the seriously unfair and misleading impression given by the BBC World Service Assignment programme about alleged diversion of famine relief aid in limited rebel-held areas of the Ethiopian province of Tigray in the 1980s.

"The apology makes it absolutely clear that none of these allegations applied to the Band Aid relief effort."

For (very) full background have a look at Brian’s analysis in March which analyses in detail all sorts of juicy – and it turns out simply wrong – swipes at Band Aid by the BBC. (Note: I have corrected this paragraph – my first version was badly written. See Brian Barder’s excellent comment and further thoughts below) 

Mind you, this is interesting:

Some of the 20 or so comments appended to my blog post on the subject revealed a striking personal animus against Bob Geldof, as if dislike of his style or resentment of his fame constituted confirmation of the allegations supposedly made against Band Aid and Live Aid.

It’s an odd feature of our times that so many people seem to have virulent views on issues they often know nothing at all about. Or is it just that they now have a lot of new ways to express themselves, and mainly the fanatics bubble up to the surface?

Not that that applies to the decorous and highly intelligent people who swing past this website, of course.