Tim Davie, the new director-general of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is all set to tackle the “left-wing bias” of the network and has asked its ‘opinionated-staff’ to change their bias or quit the job.
According to the reports, the new chief Tim Davie has promised ‘radical’ changes at BBC and also categorically asked staff members who subscribe to a certain political opinion to shed their bias or quit BBC.
“If you want to be an opinionated columnist or a partisan campaigner on social media then that is a valid choice, but you should not be working at the BBC,” he said in a speech to staff at the BBC’s office in Cardiff.
Crackdown on BBC employees posting their views on social media
Tim Davie has also announced a crackdown on BBC staff posting their political views on social media. It is being said that the new move is to restore the ‘impartial view’ of the BBC. Davie said staff will now have to adhere to new social media rules that will be “rigorously enforced”.
The new director-general also added that the priority at BBC is to focus on impartiality and to address accusations of bias from politicians on both sides of the political divide. Davie said that the BBC is no place for ‘opinionated columnists’.
“To be clear, this is not about abandoning democratic values such as championing fair debate or an abhorrence of racism. But it is about being free from political bias, guided by the pursuit of truth, not a particular agenda”, Davie reportedly said.
“We urgently need to champion and recommit to impartiality,” Davie added, noting, “In the age of fake news, social media campaigns, echo chambers of opinion, and noisy partisan media outlets, this, surely, is our time.”
BBC need to deliver views of entire nation, not just select elite: Tim Davie
Speaking to the employees a day after taking over as the head of the media network, Tim Davie said that staff should work hard to deliver on the views of the entire nation, not a select elite.
Tim Davie’s new explicit diktat to the employees of ‘Beeb’, asking them to be impartial comes after the old-age British media network has faced severe accusations not just in the United Kingdom but across different parts of the world over their left-wing bias.
The channel has often been accused of only representing the views of the London elite, rather than the people of the country. “I do not want a subscription BBC that serves the few,” Davie said to the BBC staff.
Davie also warned reporters and editors that surrounding the office with “people like us” who were only interested in “political shenanigans, internal dramas, and the latest press flare-up” will damage the corporation.
The director-general also promised that Beeb will “renew our commitment to impartiality” in a bid to win back the trust of the nation. “I want a radical shift in our focus from the internal to the external, to focus on those we serve the public,” added Tim Davie in his address to BBC staff.
