Anita Anand has been the presenter of Radio 4’s Any Answers since 2012 and had been scheduled to present yesterday’s edition
One of the BBC’s leading women presenters has been temporarily dropped from her show because of her public criticism of the gender pay gap.
Anita Anand has been the presenter of Radio 4’s Any Answers since 2012 and had been scheduled to present yesterday’s edition.
But astonishingly, less than 24 hours before she was due to go on air, BBC bosses told her to stand down because the edition was due to feature discussion of the pay dispute engulfing the corporation.
The programme was instead presented by a man, Julian Worricker, although on the BBC iPlayer website, the edition was still illustrated with an image of Ms Anand. It is thought she will return next week.
Critics last night accused the BBC of ‘insulting’ women journalists by implying that they would be incapable of being impartial. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: ‘What the BBC is saying is that none of the victims of pay discrimination can be trusted to discuss the issue impartially and fairly. It smacks of some sort of throwback to the days of Soviet Pravda.’
The BBC has been desperately trying to end the dispute over the gender pay gap, which in recent weeks has centred on the dispute between former China Editor Carrie Gracie and her bosses, after she discovered she was earning far less than male colleagues in similar roles.
Anand, 45, has tweeted and retweeted a number of messages in support of the campaign for equal pay. On November 9, she wrote: ‘It is fair and it is a legal requirement. Equal pay for equal work. This applies to all employers and all women.’
She is the latest victim of BBC impartiality rules which state journalists and presenters who have spoken out on issues cannot then take part in on-air discussions about the same subject.
In an edition of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour last week, the show’s host, Dame Jenni Murray, had to opt out of a discussion on the BBC pay dispute because she had signed a letter to the BBC highlighting the gender pay gap. Murray was temporarily forced to hand over controls of the programme. She told listeners it was because she had added her support for the letter. When the item on BBC pay ended, Dame Jenni returned to present a feature about the menopause in fiction.
Mother-of-two Anand is one of the BBC’s most experienced female journalists.
Last night she was unavailable for comment but a source said she was ‘disappointed’ about not being able to present a show she was committed to.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘Staff are entitled to their own opinions but if they choose to campaign on a topic publicly, editors must decide on a case-by-case basis whether presenters can interview people on that subject to ensure their programmes are impartial.’