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| "Hello, and welcome to Newswatch with me, Samira Ahmed" |
I was aware that Newswatch's Samira Ahmed was pursuing an unfair pay case against the BBC but I didn't ever read what it was specifically about until this week:
The BBC's first defence was to say that Newswatch is far more niche than Points of View, to which Samira's side countered that Newswatch (by being on the BBC News Channel on Friday night and BBC Breakfast the following morning actually gets higher viewing figures (though that is debatable).
Then the BBC argued that Points of View is a long-established entertainment programme requiring (and having) a presenter with broad public appeal, while Newswatch is a news programme presented by a journalist. Plus Jeremy Vine is a household name; Samira Ahmed (despite the best efforts of this blog!) isn't.
That's surely the BBC's best line of defence, and I think that Gary Oliver at The Conservative Woman nails it by comparing the matter to the equivalent case of two of Samira and Jeremy's respective predecessors: Raymond Snoddy of Newswatch and Terry Wogan of Points of View. Who would seriously have argued, back in the day, that Old Tel should have been paid the same as Ray Snoddy? No one sensible, I'd bet.
Incidentally, though no one seems to mention this, there's also Feedback to consider.
The big question here, surely, is:
What does Roger Bolton get paid per edition, and how does his pay compare to Samira Ahmed's?
Roger's radio programme is twice as long as Samira's but Samira's TV programme runs for considerably more of the year. I'm guessing Roger will be much nearer the £440 a week mark than the £3,000 mark. (No offence, Roger!). But is that the case?
