LONDON: The BBC must achieve a balance between impartiality and freedom of expression in its social media guidelines following the row over Gary Lineker’s tweets, the UK’s communications regulator, has told MPs.
Addressing the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Melanie Dawes, the chief executive of Ofcom, said: “Clearly an episode like this goes straight to the heart of that wider reputation beyond their news and current affairs coverage.”
She added that there was “ambiguity” in the broadcaster’s current guidelines, “probably designed to give a degree of flexibility… but it didn’t achieve what they wanted.”
Dawes suggested, instead, that the BBC lays down “very strict rules” for presenters. “I think they need to be weighing freedom of expression alongside the wider reputation they have for impartiality,” she said.
After having suspended Lineker on Saturday from its flagship football show, “Match of The Day,” the BBC announced his reinstatement two days later after other staff members showed solidarity by refusing to work on Sunday.
The broadcaster’s first decision came after the ex-footballer said on Twitter that rhetoric used by the government to push a new asylum law was reminiscent of 1930s Germany.
