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Mark Mayhew · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 2897

Andrew Marr has become the second BBC broadcaster within days to be banned from writing for an outside organisation.

Marr, who writes for the Daily Telegraph ,has been told that when his current contract ends he should not sign another. The move comes after Emily Maitlis,t he Newsnight presenter, was stopped by her BBC employers from writing for the weekly magazine The Spectator.

Why is this. What is the problem if employees of the BBC want to write articles for various magazines/newspapers etc. Perhaps I am missing something here.

Ian Robinson · Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:44 am Post subject:

I think it's because the BBC must be impartial, but by writing a column a BBC employee may seem to have a political opinion. It was all kicked off by something a couple of years ago but I can't remember who that was about - possibly John Humphrys.

As usual, the trouble is caused by all those rival media groups (eg Murdoch, Daily Mail) who take any chance they can to give the BBC a good kicking.

gfloyd · Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:37 pm Post subject:

Ian Robinson · Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 3:12 pm Post subject:

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19382 Location: Cheshire

I think it was the John Humphreys thing that started it all. He used to wrote in the Sunday Times.

I think Emily Maitliss is some kind of editor for the Spectator which I suppose could be seen as being biased. Personally I don't think a few articles do any harm.

H
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I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

iknewdavidjacobsmum · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 336

I suppose Mr Marrs guinea pig will have to take over the column again.
Mr Snuffles diary was hilarious during Andrews first ban. All in lower case 'cos he couldn't reach the Caps key.
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firewirefred · Guest

Whether or not a journalist writes for another media publication is determined entirely by the terms of their contract. When I was employed by the BBC (ie: on the payroll, subject to an employment contract, paying PAYE and NI through the corporation) I was not allowed to work for any other organisation that competed directly with the BBC - but if I wanted to take a bar job on a Saturday that was OK as long as it didn't interfere with work rosters, etc.

I assume that Marr & Co. are on freelance fixed-term contracts now, so there's probably some ambiguity as to what they can and can't do.

Since the "Thatcher era" of the late 80s and early 90s a great number of BBC in-house people were "floated" into the wide and uncertain world of "freelance existence", something that many of us think was a big mistake to this day. It's affected the way the corporation operates - not to mention the lack of team-spirit and mucking-in enthusiasm there used to be. That's all gone. so when people working on contract want to offer themselves around it's the BBC that's really to blame. If it doesn't want this, it should think about putting key people back on the payroll.

Even studio cameramen, sound guys, lighting specialists, VT editors, etc etc are all freelance now - and in my opinion (and experience) that's not good. It shows on the corporation's output.