Four experienced female journalists are suing the BBC, accusing it of discrimination, after being excluded from presenting roles during the merger between its national and international news channels, BBC News and BBC World News.
A “rigged” recruitment process
Figures known to BBC viewers Martine Croxall, Karin Giannone, Kasia Madera and Annita McVeigh, aged 48 to 55, accuse the public group of sexual and age discrimination, which the latter denies.
In their written testimonies, presented Wednesday during a preliminary hearing before a tribunal specializing in professional disputes, they denounce a “rigged” recruitment process following the reorganization of the BBC’s news channels, announced in 2022.
A “hostile, degrading and intimidating environment”
They complain in particular of “discrimination” and “harassment” for having suffered a “hostile, degrading, intimidating environment in the workplace”. All, they accuse, due to a process of “puppet recruitment where our positions were closed even if the dismissals were not real”.
They claim to have suffered demotions and pay cuts after the merger, which “none” of their male or young female colleagues experienced. The BBC, for its part, defends a “rigorous and fair” process. At the start of 2020, the courts ruled in favor of a presenter, Samira Ahmed, who sued the BBC for pay discrimination because she was paid six times less than her male counterpart.