Former British national team star and long-time football commentator Gary Lineker will be able to again of the British broadcasting company BBC (you will switch to another service) for broadcasts. Lineker was suspended by the BBC after he published a message on Twitter in which he harshly criticized the British Conservative government’s immigration policy.
The shelving caused great confusion in football-mad Britain. Lineker has achieved iconic status as a commentator. Due to his absence, many BBC football programs had to be cut short because no one wanted to replace Lineker.
At the same time, the BBC was suspected of bowing to government pressure and therefore removing a commentator who expressed political opinions in his broadcasts.
Now Lineker and the BBC have settled their dispute and Lineker is returning to the TV studio. Director General of the BBC Tim Davie assured that the company has not been pressured by the government. Lineker, on the other hand, has promised to follow the BBC’s current social media guidelines. The instructions are reviewed and modified as necessary.
The scandal started when Lineker compared the interior minister in his tweet Suella Braverman’s A video published on Twitter about immigration to the texts of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Lineker has taken a stance on politics before.
Ethics manager: The opposite of independence and the values that go to the core of humanity
Yleisradio’s ethics manager Timo Huovinen ponders the freedom of speech of journalists of a public broadcasting company operating with public funds.
According to Huovinen, freedom of speech includes being able to disagree personally. If the opinion is legal, it is possible to say it publicly.
On the other hand, for the BBC it is of the utmost importance to be impartial. According to Huovinen Instructions given to journalists by the BBC, for example regarding the use of social media (you will switch to another service) are so-called common law rights. The guidelines are shaped through legal cases, not from a uniform legal text. That’s why the instructions are much more detailed and stricter than, for example, the Finnish ones Journalist’s instructions (you will switch to another service).
The work of ‘s editors is guided by ‘s ethical guidelines for programming and content (OTS), which has been supplemented with guidelines for social media.
In Lineker’s case, the broadcasting company’s desire to be politically neutral and, on the other hand, the socially awakened Lineker’s desire to take a stand on what he considers to be a major social problem, i.e. the treatment of immigrants, are at odds.
In Huovinen’s opinion, the key question is whether we are now so firmly at the core of humanity that the neutrality of the broadcasting company must be sacrificed.
Huovinen does not have an answer to this, as he has not familiarized himself with the contents of Lineker’s tweet and Interior Minister Braverman’s bill.
– Journalism is supposed to be on the side of humanity, but does Lineker’s tweet go to the core of humanity, Huovinen ponders.
– I understand Lineker, because the thing he tweeted is extremely important, but I can’t say whether he went too far, Huovinen continues.
According to him, in Finland and other Nordic countries, the tweet in question would hardly have caused as much of a stir.
– In ‘s editors’ guidelines for social media, it says “think”. This is because the responsibility lies with the one posting on social media. He has to think about how this performance affects his work as an independent and impartial journalist, in the role he performs in a public sector company, Huovinen explains.
After his dismissal, Lineker published a series of tweets in which he took a stand on the position of asylum seekers.
A clip from an episode of Attenborough’s show
In the last few days, the BBC has been in the teeth of the opposition, including the award-winning nature journalist sir by David Attenborough with the new series.
The Guardian magazine (you will switch to another service) broke the news last week that one episode of Attenborough’s Wild Isles would be shown only on the video service, and not on primetime TV like other episodes. According to the Guardian, the BBC was afraid of the right-wing government’s reaction because the episode in question was about nature conservation and endangered animals.
The BBC denied the newspaper’s information. The Wild Isles series was originally planned as a 5-part series. The sixth part is separate, and it was designed to be shown on the BBC’s video-on-demand service iPlayer.
Huovinen is not familiar with the BBC’s decisions, but he does not think there is anything special about the matter.
– This is part of the normal publication process, that some are published on television and streaming services, and some are released only on streaming services.
Huovinen has not seen any signs that the BBC has come under political pressure. That would be reprehensible.
– Any outside influence that weakens editorial independence is bad. Deliveries must have their own independent decision-making power, Huovinen states.