BBC

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The Bristol Balloon Collectors will inflate the aircraft for the first time in 20 years this weekend in a field near Bath to test its condition.

The Bristol Balloon Collectors plan to tether the aircraft at the Midlands Air Festival in Alcester, Warwickshire, in June if it is in good condition.

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You will hear Clare’s voice at post-match interviews during Nine and Stan’s live coverage of Wimbledon singles finals in early July.

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Well the BBC have created the biggest shitshow of their own making in suspending their flagship football presenter Gary Lineker because he tweeted about the similarity in the rhetoric around the governments new illegal immigration bill having echos of 1930s Germany - something many organisations have also flagged and a bill the UN declared in breech of international law.

Tory MPs cried about impartiality, failing to realise that impartiality also means BBC employees should be able to criticise the government without fear or favour, especially those in none-news roles. It hit the headlines all day Wednesday but was yesterdays chip paper by Thursday and had quietened down by Friday.

And then rather than being thankful it had blown over the BBC, ran by an ex-Tory candidate and a Tory donor, suspended him under the guise of holding up impartiality.

It has backfired spectacularly. Presenters, pundits, commentators and staff have all effectively walked out meaning no football programming today on TV or radio, and at the moment Match of the Day will only be clips from matches assuming they can find someone to edit it together.

One of the biggest disasters in the BBC’s history really - I’d be surprised if there weren’t resignations at the very top next week given how poorly it has been handled and how the DG and Chairman have compromised the BBC’s independence by cowering to political pressure from the Tory government.

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The contact he signed says “staff in news and other factual journalism sectors as well as senior corporation leaders will be held to a higher standard” and “personal social media activity must also comply with the bbc editorial guidelines as though it were bbc output”

I guess what’s up for debate is if sports coverage is deemed to fall under “factual journalism” and if as BBCS highest paid talent hes considered a “senior corporation leader”

I suspect bbc solicited legal advice before acting to remove Gary and lawyers advised that they were within their rights.

If Gary wishes to take it to court I’m sure he will.

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In my opinion this was what pushed it beyond opinion. If he hadn’t likened it to a Nazi policy then he would have been fine.

Linekar didn’t liken the policy to 1930s Germany - he said the language used by the government to describe/promote the policy isn’t dissimilar to the language used during that period.

While I agree with you that invoking that period was the ‘tipping point’, there’s a significant yet important differentiation.

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Its been reported that Lineker is a freelancer (and doesn’t work in News) - so it’s highly likely that some of these rules don’t apply to him.

It was ok for him to call out Qatar’s shithouse human rights record in the lead-up to the World Cup.

Yet again the manufactured sideshow it taking coverage away from the real story

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Struggling to see how Lineker isn’t being treated differently to other BBC freelancer/contractors here.

Bit of a disaster really. Only real way I see this resolving is with the bosses stepping down and Lineker being reinstated.

Presenters boycotting sports coverage isn’t making the management look any better.

Probably because he is the face of their football coverage, and synonymous with the MOTD program, while the other guy is not synonymous with the BBC.

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A lesson in not making such big calls last thing on Friday only to have to reverse them first thing Monday morning.

Still think the positions of the Chairman and DG are untenable and hope they go this week - indeed the DG is very unapologetic and clearly seeks to resolve this by tightening guidelines rather than protecting employees and freelancers, and hence the independence and integrity of the BBC.

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Yes, no regional TV today in England at least and as the strike began in the middle of many local radio shows they went off air mid show.

Back to the impartiality row and it won’t get the coverage Lineker did but it is the crux of the matter - far more serious in fact - and records are now beginning to emerge of the government dictating what langugage the BBC should use in reporting stories, specifically the first “lockdown”, which the BBC didn’t call a lockdown under Tory instruction. Also journalists were told to be more sceptical of opposition proposals for the easing of lockdown.

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To get context on what is the reasoning behind the strike, it is due to the impeding merger of the BBC News Channel with BBC World News, and a plan to cut the number of hours on local radio content, introducing more regionalized and networked programming. Even if the plans were revised, this didn’t make the unions well. The strike, which is being called indefinitely, could also disrupt coverage of the coronation of the King and the Eurovision Song Contest.


In the middle of this, and back to presentation-related things, the BBC kids channels have quietly rebranded and been unified into the new Chameleon brand system. CBeebies has dropped the Lambie-Nairn presentation used since its launch in 2002, including its logo, and the blob elements were made fully square. Over to the CBBC channel (which is set to close later next year), they got a new look based on fluid elements and a color palette very similar to BBC Three.

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The BBC has today published its Annual Plan for 2023/24 which commits to providing a wealth of programming and services for all audiences across the UK.

Highlights for 2023/24 include:

  • Opening up more of our workings to make BBC News the most transparent newsroom in the world, building trust and impartiality
  • Bringing the nation and audiences around the world together in May for The Coronation of The King and The Queen Consort and Eurovision 2023, unique high-impact content that only the BBC can do
  • Accelerating the pace of change across our online services with an additional £50m investment per year by 2025/26
  • Delivering the first year of BBC Studios’ ambitious five-year growth plan, with the aim to grow commercial income in the long-term
  • Implementing the next phase of our Across the UK strategy, with new programmes portraying life across the country and reflecting its different communities, experiences and stories

You can find a copy of the Annual Plan here

Content highlights in the year ahead include:

  • On screen, new dramas include; Jack Thorne’s Best Interests, Shane Meadows’ The Gallows Pole, Sarah Phelps’ The Sixth Commandment, and musical drama in Champion from Candice Carty-Williams
  • For comedy, we have Undoing Martin Parker from Paul Coleman and Sian Gibson; Queen of Oz from Catherine Tate and Jeff Gutheim; and comedy thriller Black Ops
  • Factual and Arts highlights include Planet Earth III, Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland, BBC Scotland co-commission Murder Case, arts series Picasso: Monstrous Genius and Treasures of the National Trust
  • We will invest in British-produced children’s animation with comedy Super Magic Happy Forest, and drama Digi Girl
  • From the world of sport, we’ll show unrivalled cross-platform coverage of the Premier League, Women’s Super League, FA Cups, Wimbledon, Six Nations Rugby, Open Golf Championships, World Athletics Championships and the Hundred
  • In audio, Radio 1’s Big Weekend will head to Scotland, with around 80,000 music fans attending at Dundee’s Camperdown Park. On Radio 3, there will be live and recorded broadcasts from summer classical music festivals, including Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Manchester, Edinburgh, East Neuk and Huddersfield
  • For local, we will launch dedicated online services for Bradford, Wolverhampton, Sunderland and Peterborough
  • Scotland will mark the centenary of the first Gaelic broadcast with special content and events, Wales promises the biggest year of Welsh drama on the BBC to date, and Northern Ireland will reflect on the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.
  • The World Service will launch a new cross-platform education and topical programme for the secondary-age girls of Afghanistan, in Dari and Pashto
  • For education, BBC Sounds and BBC Bitesize will launch a new series of GCSE revision podcasts focussed initially on English, history and study skills