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Journalism of Courage
Gary Lineker, former England football star and beloved pundit, was Monday (March 14) reinstated by the BBC, days after he was asked to step back from presenting ‘Match of the Day (MOTD)’, BBC’s flagship football show, following backlash to his tweets on migration. “Gary is a valued part of the BBC and I know how much the BBC means to Gary, and I look forward to him presenting our coverage this coming weekend,” BBC director general Tim Davie said.
Lineker’s suspension on March 10 came three days after he tweeted, criticising the Tory government’s immigration policy and likening it to “(Nazi) Germany in the 1930s”. The tweets sparked outrage in British right-wing circles, with Tory politicians and members of the Rishi Sunak government slamming Lineker for his comments and mounting pressure on the BBC to take action against its star anchor.
In a separate incident on the same day, the BBC announced it would not broadcast an episode of Wild Isles, Sir David Attenborough’s flagship new series on British wildlife. According to reports in the British media, the episode was pulled in fear of possible Tory, right-wing backlash to the show’s themes about destruction of nature. However, the BBC claimed the episode was never meant for broadcast in the first place.
The above two incidents had unleashed a mountain of criticism at the British public broadcaster, not only from left-wing politicians and the public, but also BBC’s own employees, including pundits at MOTD, who, in a show of solidarity, decided to not be present for the broadcast. One episode of MOTD was even cancelled.
Gary Lineker was England’s top centre-forward in the 1980s, with a career spanning from 1978 to 1994. In 80 appearances for England, he scored 48 goals (currently fourth highest of all time), winning the Golden Boot in the 1986 World Cup. He also had a distinguished club career, playing for Leicester, Barcelona and Tottenham among other clubs.
Today, Lineker is known as one of England’s top football broadcasters, predominantly for his work in BBC’s MOTD, a show in which he appeared for the first time in 1999. A mainstay of football programming, MOTD has been a mainstay on British television since the 1960s. It is a football highlights programme where host Lineker is typically joined by two pundits, generally former players, to discuss the major talking points of the week’s Premier League action. In the context of ever-increasing competition from private players such as Sky and BT, MOTD remains BBC’s biggest – perhaps its last – great attraction, having become an integral part of how the public watches football.
In 2020, Lineker signed a five-year contract with BBC, which would keep him as host of MOTD till 2025. According to a 2022 BBC report, Lineker is the company’s highest-paid presenter, taking home roughly £ 1.36 million in 2021-22, even after a Covid-induced pay cut (his previous year’s salary was £1.75 million).
The saga started when Home Secretary Suella Braverman shared a video titled “Enough is Enough. We must stop the boats”. In the 78-second-long video, she claimed the British asylum system “has been overwhelmed” and announced a new Illegal Migration Bill which will not allow undocumented immigrants entering Britain to remain in the country. Braverman said such immigrants will be sent back to their home country or “a safe third country, like Rwanda”.
To this, Gary Lineker, who has previously hosted refugees in his home, responded, “Good heavens, this is beyond awful.” When someone replied to his tweet, telling him that he is “out of order”, Lineker said: “There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?”
Lineker’s tweets were heavily criticised by Braverman and those on the right. “It diminishes the unspeakable tragedy that millions of people went through, and I don’t think anything that is happening in the UK today can come close to what happened in the Holocaust”, Braverman retorted in an interview to the BBC.
Some right-wing commentators also urged the BBC to take action against Lineker. “He is the big player who thinks he can defy the ref. The reputation of the entire BBC and its director-general depends on telling him he cannot,” journalist Charles Moore wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
The vocal backlash against Lineker finally prompted the BBC to ask him to step back from MOTD.
Notably, as many experts have pointed out, the new proposed Illegal Migration Bill is a dangerous piece of legislation which goes against the UN Refugee Convention of 1951, of which the UK is a signatory. “Contracting States shall not expel a refugee lawfully in their territory save on grounds of national security or public order,” Article 32 of the Convention states.
Lineker’s suspension was followed by a social media meltdown. Many, some who even politically disagree with Lineker, voiced their support for the BBC anchor.
“Gary Lineker off air is an assault on free speech in the face of political pressure,” the Opposition Labour Party said, calling for the BBC to re-think its decision.
The criticism did not stop outside the BBC, though. Within minutes of BBC’s announcement, pundits Ian Wright (former Arsenal striker and social media darling) and Alan Shearer (Newcastle legend and Premier League’s all-time highest scorer) announced that they would not be appearing in Saturday’s show. In a few hours, commentators scheduled to work on individual matches for BBC’s broadcast recused themselves from Saturday’s programming.
Earlier, the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) made an announcement saying it will support players who refuse to participate in contractually obligated interviews on MOTD. Also, the Bectu union, which represents thousands of BBC workers, said the corporation’s move was “deeply concerning”.
In light of presenters and pundits withdrawing, the BBC was forced to cancel not just MOTD but also other shows including ‘Football Focus’, ‘Final Score’ and ‘Radio 5 Live’.
The Gary Lineker saga would itself make Friday one of the toughest in BBC’s long history. But the broadcaster also found itself in controversy involving another doyen of British television.
Sir David Attenborough, natural historian, biologist and broadcaster, has been a staple on British radio and TV sets since the 1950s. Best known for the Life series (first title Life on Earth was released in 1979), a pioneering body of work that explored earth’s natural heritage like never before, Attenborough has been with the BBC full-time since 1952.
His narration to wildlife documentaries has left an indelible imprint on many viewer’s minds. He returns as a narrator in his latest series ‘Wild Isles’, which focuses on British wildlife. On Friday, The Guardian reported that the BBC “has decided not to broadcast an episode of Sir David Attenborough’s flagship new series on British wildlife because of fears its themes of the destruction of nature would risk a backlash from Tory politicians and the rightwing press”.
The Guardian reported that five episodes of the series will be shown in primetime slots on BBC One. However, a sixth episode has also been filmed. Unlike the other five episodes, this one reportedly is of much starker tone, showing “losses of nature in the UK and what has caused the declines”.
Senior sources at the BBC told The Guardian that the decision not to show the sixth episode was made to fend off potential criticism from the political right. There has already been public criticism of the BBC from the right regarding the show. Earlier this week, The Daily Telegraph lambasted the BBC for taking funding from “two charities previously criticised for their political lobbying” – the WWF and RSPB – to produce the show. Lobbyists successfully applied pressure on the BBC to not broadcast the show on television, reported The Guardian.
While the BBC denied these accusations, claiming that “there is no ‘sixth episode’” and that “a separate film” will be broadcast on its iPlayer, BBC’s streaming portal. However, BBC’s denial did not make critics hold back
“For the BBC to censor one of the nation’s most informed and trusted voices on the nature and climate emergencies is nothing short of an unforgivable dereliction of its duty to public service broadcasting,” said Caroline Lucas, a Green Party MP.
Both the Lineker and the Attenborough controversies brought up an ongoing debate in British society regarding BBC’s stance on “political impartiality”.
In Gary Lineker’s case, the BBC cited its position of being impartial as a reason to ‘suspend’ Lineker. Its statement said, “we have said that he should keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies.”
In David Attenborough’s case, while the BBC overtly denied that there ever was a sixth episode, the British media has reported that the decision was made as the BBC felt that Attenborough’s exploration of the causes of the decline of Britain’s natural heritage “was too political”.
However, according to many commentators, the BBC has never been politically impartial, if that is even possible. Rather, the latest controversy is yet another example of the BBC cowing down to pressure from the right-wing and suppressing what can be considered dissenting opinions.
People have cited numerous instances of the BBC not only tolerating but promoting right-wing personalities and opinions. Notably, BBC Chair Richard Sharp is under pressure for failing to declare that he facilitated a loan for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson shortly before he was appointed to the role. His appointment, made on the recommendation of the government, is now being reviewed by Britain’s public appointments watchdog.
