Tony Hall's letter to Maria Miller on sexism in sports coverage - full text

Tony Hall: the BBC director general told Maria Miller that bosses had explained to John Inverdale that 'an incident of this nature must never happen again'. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Dear Maria,

Thank you for your letter of 16 July, regarding the comments made by John Inverdale on Radio 5 live earlier this month during the Wimbledon championships.

I agree that the comments made by John during the build-up to the Women's Final were totally unacceptable and fell well beneath the standards we expect of our presenters.

John sincerely regrets that he made such an inappropriate statement and for the offence caused. As he said on-air the following day, he has written to Marion Bartoli to apologise and the BBC has also apologised for John's remarks.

In addition, the director of sport and the controller of 5 live have both spoken to John to make it clear that his comments were unacceptable and that an incident of this nature must never happen again.

The BBC has a proud record of supporting women's sport, as I am sure you will have recognised from the current coverage of Euro 2013. We are building on the fantastic success of the Olympics, with a team including many women broadcasters, through extensive day-in-day-out coverage across our TV, radio and online services. With the tennis at Eastbourne (and, of course, Laura Robson's inspiring efforts at Wimbledon), the Women's British Open Golf Championship, as well as the Anniversary Games and the World Athletics Championships - when many of the world's top female athletes will be in action ? there is unprecedented coverage of women's sport across the BBC this summer. This follows on from coverage of netball, Women's Super League and World Cup cricket. We have also appointed an Editorial Lead specifically for women's sport, which has helped to ensure significantly increased coverage across our daily sporting output, such as on 5 Live, the News channel and Breakfast TV, as well as online. I would be happy to make sure you are kept updated as we enhance our editorial ambition for women's sport.

I can also tell you, following our Respect at Work review, that we are taking another look at the BBC's equality and diversity policies, which apply to all our staff. Whilst the review found no evidence of sexual harassment in the BBC now, one outcome has been for us to be much clearer when we communicate to those who work for us what constitutes inappropriate behaviour or language and to reaffirm the BBC's values around respect. Our equality and diversity online training also provides clear guidance on general standards of behaviour by all those we employ, as well as emphasising the importance of treating people with respect.

Whilst of course the editorial judgments about what happens on air are a matter which is distinct from issues within the workplace, I hope you will appreciate that this is a matter I take very seriously across the BBC.

Best wishes,

Tony Hall

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jul/18/tony-hall-letter-maria-miller

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