BRITAIN’S HEADLINES ACROSS radio, TV and print have been dominated this week – not by the many problems we all face – but by the tweets of a sports presenter.

Gary Lineker – perhaps the BBC’s biggest star, presenter of Match of the Day and former English football legend – wrote on Twitter he thought the government’s new migration policy was “awful” and, when challenged, likened the language to that used in Germany in the 1930s.

Cue government and newspaper outrage and a trial by public opinion. The reaction is partly because he is such a big star for the BBC, and partly fed by resentment over his salary and his political views which he isn’t shy of articulating.

More particularly it’s because BBC staff are meant to be impartial in all they say and do in public – something both the Director General and Chairman of the BBC have committed themselves to ensuring.

Unfortunately, the BBC’s rules as they apply to freelancers and presenters outside news are less clear than they need to be. So opinion divides between those who think he should be sacked and those who think he should be praised for speaking frankly.

The case for the prosecution

Working for the BBC, whether staff or freelance, is different to working for other media organisations. As a public broadcaster its funding, its history and its role in British society is different.

Those who work for it in any capacity know this and can decide whether to sign up for the responsibilities that brings or work elsewhere. But if they agree to be paid by public funds and given a major public platform and profile they should accept the policies that are in place to protect the organisation and recognise it is different to working for a commercial outlet.

Gary Lineker knows this but has continued to use his privileged position, built largely on the back of the BBC, to promote his personal political views.

In continuing to ignore the responsibility to be impartial in public he is abusing his position and arrogantly assuming he is a case apart. He has deliberately used provocative language to gain attention and mischievously tweaked the noses of critics to irritate them.

In doing so he has caused significant problems for the BBC which he either doesn’t recognise or care about – it’s time to call a halt. He should go.

The case for the defence

He is a sports broadcaster, not a political or news journalist. He never speaks of political issues on the BBC. The one exception was when the BBC encouraged him to talk about human rights at the start of the Qatar World Cup – a strategic error by the BBC, not him, to mix sport and politics.

His profile both precedes and exceeds his BBC work. He also presents for BT Sport, has his own production company and does other commercial work.

Why should BBC staff policies have to apply across all these other areas of his life when his BBC role is only one part of what he does?

He has a genuine interest and concern for refugees and it is wrong for a broadcaster, which should support free speech, to prevent him voicing those concerns.

Furthermore, it is hypocritical for the BBC to be concerned about the off-air politics of a lead presenter when its chairman and at least one board member are closely and openly associated with the government of the day.

What difference does being freelance make?

In the past freelance status was a way of paying more and attracting talent – and in a less competitive world the BBC could impose its policies on them.

Today, the media environment is very different. There is far more competition and greater choice for “the talent” to work.

Power has moved to the talent in the age of podcasting and digital media. And the public environment has changed as well. We are in a networked, social media age where opinion is valued and self censorship is not.

The BBC appears to be more concerned with how to censure him to appease its critics than supporting its biggest star when he’s under attack.

Verdict

These positions are incompatible, So he will probably leave, and find more lucrative and less onerous employment elsewhere.

The BBC will sigh with relief at a problem dispensed with. There will be a new lead presenter for Match of the Day who will grow into the role and the audience, initially disappointed, will forget. The BBC’s critics will notch up a scalp and search for the next target.

But unless the BBC (and other public broadcasters) reconcile the tension between offering big names freelance contracts but trying to treat them as staff (something the tax authorities are also concerned about by the way) it will just happen again and again.

Richard Sambrook is Emeritus Professor of Journalism at Cardiff University and a former Director of Sport and Director of News at the BBC.