Hacker News Reader

Comment by Cymrukicks | Hacker News Reader

Except he didn't, he used his own personal twitter account. He is a contractor and there were a variety of previous presenters who did the same thing (eg. Alan Sugar vs Corbyn). Only they didn't criticise the government as Gary did and the BBC board is stacked with members of the Tory Party including the chair who arranged a finance for the previous Primeminister while applying for the role of Chair.

It was a clear case of goverment interference using the impartiality rules, only the conversation around impartiality went right above Gary to the powers that be immediately after his removal which is why he is back.

View on HN

> Except he didn't, he used his own personal twitter account.

The BBC's impartiality rules cover this.

> Personal Activity

> Expressions of Opinion on Social Media

> Where individuals identify themselves as being linked with the BBC, or are programme makers, editorial staff, reporters or presenters primarily associated with the BBC, their activities on social media have the potential to compromise the BBC’s impartiality and to damage its reputation.

> Our audiences must be able to trust the integrity of BBC programmes and services and be confident that the outside activities of our presenters, programme makers and other staff do not undermine the BBC's impartiality or reputation or that their editorial decisions are not perceived to be influenced by any commercial or personal interests.

> They should not:

> state or reveal publicly how they vote or express support for any political party

> express a view for or against any policy which is a matter of current party political debate

Read the introduction:

> This guidance note is intended to help BBC staff operate appropriately in every aspect of their activities on social media

He isn't BBC staff.

> He isn't BBC staff.

That's not a fait accompli, and is why this situation arose:

> Do the policies apply to Lineker? The answer is yes. The policies apply to everyone who works for the BBC.

https://www.russells.co.uk/own-goal-for-bbc-with-gary-lineke...

> “I think there’s quite a lot of confusion about the extent to which the impartiality guidelines extend outside of news and extend to freelancers rather than staff, and until that’s cleared up we’re going to go on having these kinds of (problems).”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/gary-lineker-bbc-confu...

The public face of the BBC is not affected by whether or not the person is a permanent employee, but rather how prominent that person is in the organisation. It's disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

The first link just says "yes the policy does apply to him" without making an actual argument? And the second just says it's a grey area?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com