BBC employment discrimination - part 2

Almost three years ago it became unlawful to discriminate against people at work because of their sexual orientation. That means that employees must be treated in the same way no matter whether they're gay, straight, lesbian or bisexual. The problem with the BBC is that it doesn't seem to believe in, and adhere to the principles of equality and diversity - as can be seen, for example, in the differences in the way Andrew Hayden-Smith and Alex Parks were each interviewed for their star chats in 2003 just before the laws against sexual orientation discrimination came in.

Andrew Hayden-Smith chat video - 7 October 2003.

Alex Parks chat video - 14 November 2003.

Andrew Hayden-Smith, who wasn't "out" as gay at the time, was asked several questions relating to romance, dating and his "love life" - the questions are shown in red on the chat transcript. Alex Parks, on the other hand, was "out" as a lesbian and, although she had said previously in a newspaper interview that she was happy to be a role model, she wasn't asked any similar questions in her star chat.

Paul Smith, the CBBC editorial policy adviser who I contacted this summer, wasn't interested in any apparent evidence of discrimination (blog 3 September 2006), saying he didn't believe the comparison between the interviews was valid. However I think the difference between these "star chats" means it's also quite possible that gay staff aren't treated as equals - especially if they work on CBBC. In 2005 Stonewall's chief executive, Ben Summerskill spoke of a pink plateau in many British workplaces, and in March 2006 wrote that BBC staff were aware of a plateau.

Last May's edition of Attitude included an interview with Andrew Hayden-Smith who had then been out for about a year and a half. Attitude's editor wrote:

So much has been written about gays on television, it seems there’s little left to say. The arguments around representation - too much, too little, the wrong sort, the right sort - seem to recirculate every couple of years, most recently in a widely reported Stonewall survey that, essentially, found the BBC’s gay tally sadly underwhelming. While there’s still someway to go, it certainly seems, to these eyes at least, that things are getting better.....

Andrew spoke in his interview for Attitude about coming out and his role in Dr Who. His character, Jake, was supposed to be in love with Ricky - the parallel universe's Mickey. But in the interview Andrew mentioned not being able to include a kiss because they couldn't push it that far. Andrew said he hadn't come across any homophobia in the BBC. However, for whatever reason he left his CBBC presenting job two months after that interview was published. His departure means that there aren't any openly gay presenters on children's television.

And in June the BBC governors condoned insulting language such as calling a ringtone "gay". This derogatory usage can be said to be directly rooted in homophobia. Subsequently, and in spite of the kerfuffle over the governors' decision, Jeremy Clarkson called a Daihatsu Copen car "gay" and a bit "ginger beer" (queer) on Top Gear.

As to age discrimination - that like the other anti-discrimination laws will outlaw unacceptable language as well as direct discrimination. BBC News recently reported that when it comes to ageist language, employers will have to avoid phrases such as saying an employee is "wet behind the ears."

In the early days of BBC tv, some children's presenters, like Annette Mills and Johnny Morris were much older than the current presenters. In fact, Annette Mills was over 50 when she started presenting Muffin the Mule on 20 October 1946, and Johnny Morris was still presenting a BBC children's programme when he was nearly 70 years old.

But look at CBBC today. How many of its presenters, if any, are over 30 years old? A clear example of age discrimination.

And then there's old-fashioned sexism - revived in programmes like TMi (see last Saturday's blog entry). In a newspaper interview last week, Sam and Mark said they discovered their co-host, Caroline, in a 'dirty skip.' They need to ditch that nasty sexist attitude - and be quick about it.

Many types of discrimination seem to linger on at the BBC. The BBC's Diversity Centre will have its work cut out if BBC senior management doesn't see sense and make it clear immediately that all discrimination is unacceptable.