The BBC is denying that it will operate an ethnic quota
system following director-general Greg Dyke’s criticisms that the corporation
is “hideously white”.
A spokesperson for the BBC said, “We are merely trying to increase
senior managers’ awareness of the BBC’s policy in regards to equal
opportunities and recruitment. There will not be a quota system.”
Targets for the BBC’s equal opportunities policy, set last
April, include increasing the proportion of staff from ethnic minorities to 10
per cent of the BBC’s UK workforce and 4 per cent of management by 2003.
Currently, just 8 per cent of BBC staff are from ethnic
minorities, with only 2 per cent of managers non-white.
Speaking in a BBC Radio Scotland interview over the week
yesterday, Dyke said, “I think the BBC is a predominantly white organisation.
The figures that we have at the moment suggest that quite a lot of people from
ethnic backgrounds that we do attract to the BBC leave. Maybe they don’t feel
at home, maybe they don’t feel welcome.”
By Karen Higginbottom
