Ex-Newsnight host Emily Maitlis compares the BBC’s ‘stifling’ impartiality rules to ‘censorship’
Former Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis has compared the BBC‘s impartiality rules to ‘censorship’.
The seasoned journalist made the astonishing swipe after she and her colleague Jon Sopel ditched the corporation together to make a daily podcast at rival broadcaster LBC in February.
Speaking to The Observer, Maitlis said: ‘Impartiality will be really important for us here [at LBC]. We’re not trying to do shock-jock stuff. We’re not trying to scream opinions at the world.
‘Impartiality, in its true sense, is about covering stories without fear or favour. I get nervous when impartiality is used as a way of shutting down journalists. Is it because you were asking questions you shouldn’t have been?
‘I don’t think that’s impartiality – that’s censorship. And if your journalism is going to suffer by staying somewhere where you cannot ask those questions, what are you doing, right?’
Emily Maitlis and colleague Jon Sopel left the BBC together to make a daily podcast at Global’s LBC
Emily Maitlis conducted a bombshell interview with Prince Andrew over his links with Jeffrey Epstein while presenter of Newsnight
Maitlis had already fallen afoul of the BBC’s strict rules before leaving the broadcaster this year.
The journalist came under fire for criticising Dominic Cummings in a Newsnight monologue and retweeting messages condemning Boris Johnson.
Meanwhile Jon Sopel, who previously worked as the BBC’s North America Editor, recalled an incident while working in the US when he filed a story while travelling with Barack Obama to the UK.
He said the BBC’s night editor called him and said the story was not impartial as it did not include anything about Nigel Farage – this was shortly before the Brexit referendum.
‘I said, ‘I don’t think Nigel Farage was on the plane’.’
The pair’s new podcast with LBC launches next week and will be a news-focussed programme
Ms Maitlis had several run-ins with management over impartiality before she decided to leave her role, the most controversial of which was when she said Cummings had broken lockdown rules during a Newsnight programme.
She was reprimanded by the corporation, but told Press Gazette that it was never explained to her what was inaccurate about her monologue.
The pair’s podcast will be a daily news show in which they hope to focus on big stories which are not the main topic of the day.
But Ms Maitlis and Mr Sopel are not the only pair to have jumped ship in recent months.
Paul O’Grady left the corporation this week after quitting from his 14-year role on Radio 2 – with his departure coming just weeks after Steve Wright announced he was stepping down.
Vanessa Feltz, 60, also stepped back from her shows on Radio 2 and BBC Radio London after almost 20 years at the helm.
The 60-year-old presenter, whose salary of more than £400,000 made her the BBC’s eighth-highest earner, quit her early morning breakfast show earlier this summer.