The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) stands against racism, but that doesn’t mean its reporters can openly express their antiracist positions. That appears to be the message from the British network’s top executive, who has banned reporters from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts to work.
BBC head says BLM shirts in newsroom ‘not appropriate’
The Guardian reported that BBC director general Tim Davie stated that while the network is against racism, it’s “not appropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue to be campaigning in that way.”
He said, “You cannot have any assumption about where people are politically. You leave it at the door, and your religion is journalism in the BBC. And I tell you: the problem I’ve got is people react quite chemically to that. So you can’t come into the newsroom with a Black Lives Matter T-shirt on. We stand absolutely firmly against racism in any form. I find some of the hatred in society at the moment utterly abhorrent, personally, really upsetting, but that is a campaign that has politicised objectives. Therefore, it is not appropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue to be campaigning in that way And, for some people joining the BBC, that is a very difficult thing to accept. And it has not been an easy thing to get done this, and we wrestle with it every day.”
Davie, speaking about diversity and impartiality at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, compared wearing a BLM shirt to campaigning for a political candidate.
“I feel very, very strongly that if you walk into the BBC newsroom, you cannot be holding a Kamala Harris mug when you come to the election – no way, that’s not even acceptable.”
He discussed “socioeconomic diversity” as a topic that “hadn’t been talked about enough.” Touching on British politics, he mentioned people questioning the BBC’s coverage.
“‘Why are you giving a voice to Reform?’ Why are you doing this?'” Davie said, referring to objections to the BBC’s coverage of the right-wing, anti-immigrant Reform Party in Britain. “We’re not giving a voice, we’re covering – covering what people are interested in, covering the reality of what people feel,” Davie explained.
Covering BLM and navigating BBC controversies
Davie became the BBC’s director general in 2020, around the time that the Black Lives Matter movement reached a peak in the United States and around the world after the murder of George Floyd. Britain has a long history of anti-Black racism and other forms of discrimination, and encounters between Black Britons and police have fueled Black Lives Matter protests in that country. At the same time, the movement has seen opposition within the British population, and instances of highlighting Black Lives Matter on the BBC have drawn complaints from viewers. Shortly after Davie took the top job at the BBC, the network implemented strict social media regulations for BBC employees, restricting reporters from participating in “public demonstrations or gatherings about controversial issues,” specifically citing Black Lives Matter protests as an example.
In addition to managing BBC coverage of Black Lives Matter, Davie has also dealt with several scandals involving the network. These include the eventual firing of both judges of the popular food competition show MasterChef following investigations into inappropriate comments and behavior by the show’s two presenters. Davie has pushed back against accusations that the BBC has fostered a “toxic culture” across the network. The BBC also received numerous complaints after airing a live festival performance by punk-rap duo Bob Vylan in which the band led chants of “death to the IDF” during the war in Gaza and proclaimed “f**k Keir Starmer”, referring to the British prime minister.
With these various challenges to the BBC’s programming and news coverage, Davie has maintained a strict stance concerning the network’s reporters. Even as Black Lives Matter and other movements continue to operate and protest in the United States, the United Kingdom and beyond, Davie continues to place limits on BBC reporters’ expressions of social justice, citing impartiality for the censorship of journalists’ personal views.