Déjà vu

Ms Unsworth

Every four years or so a senior BBC figure ends up sending out an email to BBC staff telling them to stop tweeting personal views. In 2010 it was Helen Boaden. In 2014 it was Mary Hockaday. And in 2019 it's Fran Unsworth. In an email to all staff leaked to the Guardian, she says:

We all have personal views, but it is part of our role with the BBC to keep those views private. Our editorial guidelines say BBC staff must not advocate any particular position on a matter of public policy, political or industrial controversy, or any other ‘controversial subject’. That applies to all comments in the public domain, including on social media. There is no real distinction between personal and official social media accounts. 

We are living in a period of highly polarised opinions on a range of subjects and the BBC frequently faces criticism for the way we report and analyse events, with our impartiality called into question. 

Many of these criticisms are unfounded and we are prepared to defend ourselves robustly where necessary. We also need to make sure our own house is in order.

According to the Guardian, Ms. Unsworth also pulled the rug out from many a BBC Tweeter by "declaring that putting “retweets aren’t endorsements” in an online biography does not absolve an individual of responsibility." 

She went on:

Ignoring these rules risks undermining the BBC’s reputation, particularly given our renewed focus on impartiality. We haven’t always been consistent in dealing with this issue in the past, but we cannot afford for this to continue and will consider appropriate action in future.

Poor old Hugh Sykes and John Simpson, and countless others at the BBC, will have to drastically tone it down or end up before the BBC beak. Fran has spoken!

*******

Talking of John Simpson, here he is, juxtaposed with his BBC colleague Andrew Neil:

John agrees with the anti-Brexit NYT piece, Andrew disagrees with it. Will Fran be having words with them?