People being able to air their view in a democracy? Whatever next.
Of course the BBC has impartiality, and conduct in our social media can affect any job. If other BBC staff can’t make their opinion known, I can see where friction may lie, but Linekar isn’t the only one. And I don’t see how Portillo getting paid for airing them makes it any different. If the BBC is worried about impartiality that won’t make any difference, and frankly recent news of the actions made by the BBC top brass is more worrying for this than anything Linekar has said.
If this provokes an honest assessment of how BBC staff and freelancers are expected to work with their social media accounts, then great, but it has to be consistent. I would hope the BBC sides with an ability for free speech. Of course limitations would be something permissible, but it’s not one in favour of free speech, and it’s egregious for anyone to claim that the BBC would be acting in the principles of such when stopping anyone from airing their views.
