Men face discrimination at BBC - Paxman

A BBC journalist claims white middle-class men face discrimination at the BBC. The presenter of BBC2's Newsnight programme, Jeremy Paxman, named several senior women executives, including BBC Vision director Jana Bennett and BBC1 Controller Jay Hunt, as p

He spoke on a filmed interview, which was aired at the Edinburgh Television Festival.

TV presenter Mariella Frostrup, a former host of BBC2's The Culture Show, gave an angry response to his comments. During a debate called 'Women, Know Your Place' she said: “He names about five women because he couldn't possibly name all the men in positions of power in TV because he would have been there all bloody day”.

She added that she herself faced discrimination when she returned to work after having a baby. Her availability, which depended on breastfeeding, was judged ‘inconvenient’ by producers and she had to quit as presenter of The Culture Show.