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Editorial: BBC scores an own goal, but Match of the Day's Gary Lineker is also offside

Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker outside his home in London yesterday. Photo: James Manning

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March 12 2023 02:30 AM

The BBC’s Match of the Day has been a national experience in the UK for almost 60 years — one which is also widely shared in this country. The host of the programme since 1999, former England international Gary Lineker, has been suspended by the BBC following controversy over a tweet he posted last week which was highly critical of the UK government’s migration policy.

Lineker had compared the language used by the UK’s Home Office in framing its policy on migrants to that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

This is not the first time the highest-paid BBC presenter has weighed into political events of the day and raised questions in some quarters over his, and by extension the UK national broadcaster’s, impartiality. However, the BBC decision to stand down Lineker has also given rise to accusations that the broadcaster has bowed to government pressure in the UK.

Two senior Conservative ministers, Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, have been critical of Lineker, as have several lesser-known Tory politicians.

The suspension of Lineker also comes at a time when the BBC chairman Richard Sharp, who was appointed by a Conservative government, has been in the spotlight for giving the Conservatives £400,000 (€452,000) and criticised for helping to arrange a £800,000 loan for former British prime minister Boris Johnson.

As the storm around that decision continued to rage, Match of the Day was last night expected to be broadcast without presenters, pundits or its usual commentators after other well-known figures publicly announced they would not be turning up to present the show. The BBC has said Lineker will be off air until an agreement is reached over his future use of social media.

The controversy raises questions about the responsibilities of public service broadcasters such as the BBC and about freedom of speech, particularly in an era of ubiquitous celebrity and social media.

The BBC has not said Lineker, who has close to nine million followers on Twitter, should be an opinion-free zone or cannot take a view on issues that matter to him. But the corporation has also said he should keep away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies.

To be clear, Lineker was correct when he also stated the UK takes in “far fewer refugees than other major European countries”, to which he added there was “no huge influx” of migrants on small boats from the continent.

The BBC is right to be mindful of its responsibilities as a public service broadcaster, but the issue is complicated because Lineker is a sports broadcaster, and not a news or political journalist for whom impartiality is non-negotiable.

Such is his public profile, however, that Lineker must be careful in what he states on Twitter, as indeed should all social media users.

The BBC is in a difficult position, but so far it has handled the controversy badly. Indeed, it could be said that the broadcaster has scored a serious own goal. It has certainly left itself open to accusations of undue political influence.

With his inflammatory reference to Nazi Germany, Lineker has also crossed a line — or to continue the football analogy, he could be judged offside in some of the language he used.

But the court of public opinion is going mostly one way — and the BBC will surely struggle to snatch even a score draw from the jaws of what looks like an embarrassing defeat.

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Editorial: BBC scores an own goal, but Match of the Day's Gary Lineker is also offside

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