THE BBC has appointed a former executive to assess if its social media accounts breach its policy on impartiality.
Professor Richard Sambrook, director of journalism at Cardiff University and a former director of global news at the BBC, will review how the broadcaster maintains impartiality on social media.
It follows BBC bosses censured Newsnight host Emily Maitlis after she opened the programme with a monologue criticising Boris John’s top aide Dominic Cummings.
Deputy SNP leader Keith Brown accused the corporation of buckling under pressure from Number 10 by allegedly censuring Maitlis, and told The National: “This statement is a gutless capitulation by BBC bosses. Newsnight should be commended – not slapped down – for their serious investigative work on Cummings, that’s not something you could say about the BBC News at 10.”
Other BBC hosts, including political editor Laura Kuenssberg and Andrew Neil, have been criticised for their social media posts in the past.
Sambrook, who was with the BBC for 30 years, will also consider if programmes such as Question Time breach its impartiality promise.
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