10 Informed Spotlight


Maintaining a balanced news


words in 2006 at an event hosted by BBC governors called “Impartiality: Fact or Fiction”. Tose were different times, before the explosion of social media and before Brexit. Today the debate over BBC impartiality is back shaping the future of British broadcasting – and a new director general has arrived with a sharpened set of secateurs. In his introductory speech in September, Tim Davie listed “impartiality” as his “number one priority” and the “very essence” of the BBC. “Our research shows that too many perceive us to be shaped by a particular perspective,” he warned. Within weeks the BBC published


far-reaching impartiality guidelines, threatening staff with the sack if they failed to comply. Tey were told never to break stories on their personal media accounts, to avoid “virtue signalling” by liking other posts and to be wary of using emojis. Tey should never support campaigns on social media – “no mater how apparently worthy the cause” – and must “not participate in public demonstrations”, nor “become the face of a charity”. Paul Siegert, the NUJ’s national


Director general Tim Davie says impartiality is the essence of the BBC. Ian Burrell looks at his new social media guidelines


“Te first thing that happens to you as a BBC journalist,” Andrew Marr once told a seminar, “is that you’re taken down into a dank basement to have your trousers pulled down and your organs of opinion removed with a pair of secateurs by the director general and popped in a formaldehyde botle. You’re told you’re allowed them back when you leave.” Te BBC’s star interviewer spoke those


broadcasting organiser, says the guidelines provoked a lot of anger among staff: “Tey feel being journalists at the BBC shouldn’t prevent them from speaking out on subjects they feel passionately about. Tese are professional people and just because they have a personal view about something doesn’t mean that is going to taint the way that they report a story.” Outside the BBC, the furore over impartiality has – inevitably – provoked a range of responses. Marcus Ryder, a former BBC news


executive and visiting professor in media diversity at Birmingham City University Centre, told NUJ Informed that the guidelines were “fit for heterosexual, able-bodied, white men” but failed to take account of the “protected characteristics” – including disability, sexuality and race – enshrined in the Equality Act 2010. “A gay person atending a Pride rally is very


Mat Kenyon


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