[ad_1]
A BBC board member who acts as an arbiter of the broadcaster’s impartiality is an “active agent” of the Conservative Party, in response to former Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis.
Ms Maitlis, who left the BBC this yr for rival media group Global, is known to have referred to Theresa May’s former communications director Sir Robbie Gibb in a speech that was scathing in regards to the company’s alleged closeness to No 10.
Sir Robbie, who was appointed by Boris Johnson’s authorities to the BBC board final yr, was Downing Street communications director from 2017 to 2019.
Before that, he labored on the BBC for 25 years, in roles together with the deputy editor of Newsnight and editor of The Daily Politics and This Week.
Ms Maitlis’s feedback got here in the course of the annual MacTaggart Lecture on the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday night time, when she criticised the BBC for having “sought to pacify” No 10 by issuing a swift apology for a Newsnight monologue she gave about Dominic Cummings’s lockdown-breaching journey to Durham.
Introducing an episode of the programme in 2020, Ms Maitlis stated stated Mr Cummings, then Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, had “broken the rules” with a lockdown journey to Durham and “the country can see that, and it’s shocked the Government cannot”.
The BBC obtained greater than 20,000 complaints and dominated that she breached impartiality guidelines.
But Ms Maitlis stated the programme initially “passed off with a few pleasant texts from BBC editors and frankly little else”.
“It was only the next morning that the wheels fell off. A phone call of complaint was made from Downing Street to the BBC News management.
“This – for context – will not be uncommon. It wasn’t uncommon within the Blair days – removed from it – within the Brown days, within the Cameron days. What I’m saying is it is regular for presidency spin docs to vocalise their displeasure to journalists.”
But she added: “What was not foreseen was the speed with which the BBC sought to pacify the complainant. Within hours, a very public apology was made, the programme was accused of a failure of impartiality, the recording disappeared from the iPlayer, and there were paparazzi outside my front door.
Robbie Gibb was Theresa May’s head of communications
(Getty Images)
“Why had the BBC immediately and publicly sought to confirm the government spokesman’s opinion, without any kind of due process?”
She urged BBC bosses had been sending a message of reassurance to the federal government.
In an obvious reference to Sir Robbie, Ms Maitlis added: “Put this in the context of the BBC board, where another active agent of the Conservative Party – former Downing Street spin doctor and former adviser to BBC rival GB News – now sits, acting as the arbiter of BBC impartiality.”
She additionally claimed journalists had been now self-censoring to keep away from a backlash over their work.
The Independent has requested the BBC to reply to the criticism over Sir Robbie.
On the programme that includes her monologue, a BBC spokesperson stated: “The BBC places the highest value on due impartiality and accuracy and we apply these principles to our reporting on all issues.
“As we have made clear previously in relation to Newsnight, we did not take action as a result of any pressure from No 10 or government, and to suggest otherwise is wrong.
“The BBC found the programme breached its editorial standards and that decision still stands.”
[ad_2]
Source link
