Complaint to BBC re Paxman and BAP reply to second complaint

[David Sketchley]

BBC News Director Helen Boaden's reply RE: Paxman’s connection w/British American Project
Posted by gabriele on March 28, 2008, 10:46 am

Dear Mr Zamparini

As explained by Andrew Martin in his email of March 3rd, your complaint about Jeremy Paxman’s connection with the British American Project has been escalated to divisional level for a Stage 2 response.

If I may summarize your concerns, you believe that Mr Paxman’s association with the BAP gives rise to a conflict of interest and “casts serious concerns about his ability – as a BBC journalist – to remain objective and neutral on many important topics.” You cite in support of your view a section from the BBC’s Conflict of Interest guidelines:

Presenters and reporters primarily associated with the BBC.
Those known to the public primarily as presenters of, or reporters on, BBC news programmes or programmes about current affairs, must be seen to be impartial. It is important that no off-air activity, including writing, the giving of interviews or the making of speeches, leads to any doubt about their objectivity on-air. If such presenters or reporters publicly express personal views off-air on controversial issues, then their on-air role may be severely compromised. It is crucial that in both their BBC work and in non BBC activities such as writing, speaking or giving interviews, they do not:-
state how they vote or express support for any political party
express views for or against any policy which is a matter of current party political debate
advocate any particular position on an issue of current public controversy or debate
exhort a change in high profile public policy.
If, in an exceptional case, such a presenter or reporter writes or speaks off-air in favour of one position on an issue of current public controversy, this could give rise to concerns about impartiality. The relevant Director or Head of Department should give very careful consideration as to whether there is an actual conflict of interest and whether they should declare their interest on-air or not present items or conduct interviews on the issue.

Permission must be sought from the relevant Director, Head of Department or their nominee before outside writing or speaking commitments are undertaken about current affairs or matters of current public controversy or debate.(See section 3 below).

In your email of February 2nd, you suggest that the fact that the British American Project is non-party political is not relevant in this context. But, in my view, it is entirely pertinent; amongst its members and associates, the BAP brings together people from a wide range of political viewpoints and professional backgrounds who meet in order to pursue a dialogue. I do not believe that Jeremy Paxman is a very active member of the organisation (indeed it came as a surprise to him that his picture was being used on their website) but, even if he were, it can only be helpful for presenters to be informed about all sorts of different perspectives.

It seems to me that the nub of your concern is the fact that the BAP “exists to help maintain and enrich the long-standing relationship between Britain and the United States” and you compare it with a notional pre-1989 Polish Russian Project which seeks to promote soviet communism. But such an analogy is false as the thrust of the BAP is about exploring the British-American relationship, “.. one which we believe is important, whether challenged or celebrated through time.” And membership of the BAP does not mean that interlocutors are therefore against their countries’ relationships with different countries.

In conclusion, I do not think there is any conflict of interest in the way you suggest and I hope that I have addressed your concerns.

Yours sincerely

Helen Boaden
Director, BBC News