BBC Faces Parliamentary Grilling on Gender Pay Inequality and Gagging Clauses

The Director General of the BBC faces tough questions next week when he appears before an influential committee of MPs.

Tony Hall will appear before House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on the afternoon of Wednesday, 31st January 2018.

Top of the agenda is the ongoing row over gender pay inequality at the national broadcaster. Former BBC China Editor, Carrie Gracie, who recently resigned her post in protest at pay inequality, will appear before the Committee at 2 pm.

Talented journalist Gracie, a fluent speaker of Mandarin, received a salary of £135,000 in her former role, whereas Jon Sopel, the North America Editor, receives a salary in excess of £200,000.

By way of coincidence, Sopel was among six of the BBC's leading male personalities to recently accept a pay cut in an effort to level the playing field with their underpaid female colleagues.

Hall appears before the Committee at 3 pm, alongside Deputy Director General Anne Bulford and Director of News Fran Unsworth.

In addition to tough questions about pay, he is likely to face criticism over the BBC's continued use of so-called gagging clauses on former employees. Gracie slammed the BBC's use of non-disclosure agreements in her recent resignation letter.

As part of its post-Savile transparency drive, the BBC said it would stop using gagging clauses as a method of suppressing internal strife. As with many of the BBC's claims, it would appear the words of then Director General George Entwistle rang hollow.

Coverage of the Select Committee hearing begins at 1 pm on Wednesday. You can view it on Parliament Live.

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