BBC Director-General Tells MPs: We Are Not Institutionally Racist
The new BBC chief has denied the organisation is institutionally racist in front of a Commons committee.
It comes after staffers at the broadcaster labelled it as such in an exclusive, two-part HuffPost UK investigation, leading to follow-up reports across the media and calls for an independent inquiry from MPs.
Director-general Tim Davie gave evidence to the digital, culture, media and sport committee on Tuesday about the work of the corporation.
While grilling him about gender pay and discrimination, John Nicolson – the Scottish National party MP for Ochil and South Perthshire – asked him if the BBC was “institutionally racist”.
Davie said it was not, though did not explain why, but conceded that there were improvements to be made on diversity.
“I don’t think it’s institutionally racist,” he said. “There has been progress in certain areas – and, by the way, I’m spending an enormous amount of time talking to BAME staff, getting open forums, listening.
“We have made some progress; on screen, I could list all the projects but I think we’ve made some progress. Internally, though, the facts are we now have an organisation that’s over 15% BAME which is reasonable progress but, I think, the biggest problem is leadership in terms of making sure we see BAME leaders in the organisation.
“We’re currently at 12% but that number, if I’m being very honest, is slightly kind to us because in terms of the top of the organisation, in terms of some of the key decision making bodies of the BBC, we haven’t had enough representation.”
Earlier this month, the BBC admitted that it had failed to reach its 2020 target for Black, Asian and minority ethic (BAME) leaders.
Pressing the BBC chief further on the issue of diversity, Nicolson drew reference to evidence submitted to the committee from the Campaign for Broadcasting Equality, headed up by Simon Albury, and David Olusoga’s McTaggart lecture where he said he was “crushed” by his...
