Celebrity culture versus BBC impartiality

The Countryside Alliance has accused the BBC of being “addicted to a culture of celebrity among its own presenters” in a response to its consultation on a new draft set of editorial guidelines. 

The consultation, which closes on Thursday (19 December), sought views on new guidelines being revised for the first time since 2019. It asked whether the draft is clear and straightforward, sets out appropriate editorial standards for BBC programmes and content, and properly reflects changes in the media landscape since the last review. 

Our response called on the BBC to take a broader view of its impartiality obligations across the breadth of its output. The current draft does make progress, but we argued that the examples it cited appeared to restrict the policy to news and online output. We said it should go further and cover all long-running current affairs programming, including shows such as Countryfile. We also recognised that not every segment or programme can be expected to present its issues in complete neutrality, but maintained that the BBC should be using commissioning decisions to create balance overall. That approach would go some way towards answering criticism over decisions to air some highly partisan programming, such as its recent documentary on bovine TB fronted by Brian May. 

Another major theme the guidelines seek to tackle is conflicts of interest. The consultation document is adamant that it will not consider attempts to re-litigate old complaints, which our response was equally clear that it was making no attempt to do. We did, however, need to air the well-publicised controversies sparked by external activities of BBC presenters including Gary Lineker and Chris Packham. 

Past problems we have faced with BBC editorial guidelines have had less to do with the guidelines themselves than with the BBC’s approach to enforcement. High-profile cases have involved celebrity presenters treated with such adulation as to leave them feeling – and apparently being – untouchable. Byzantine and obfuscatory complaints processes have resulted in artificial distinctions being drawn between employees and contractors, or ‘regular’ and ‘recurrent’ presenters, that have no relevance to viewers. 

We concluded: 

“If the BBC is serious about putting impartiality first, it needs to do more than just 

moving that section of the draft Guidelines up to the top. It needs to make known to its presenters that they are not indispensable, and it needs to be ready and willing to dispense with those who do not wish to comply.” 

Our full response to the consultation is available to read here.