BBC to become more impartial?

Fran Unsworth tells BBC staff: Get used to hearing views you don’t like.
The corporation faces dissent in its ranks after its withdrawal from the Stonewall diversity scheme last week
Rosamund Urwin, Media Correspondent
Sunday November 14 2021, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times

" Fran Unsworth, the BBC’s outgoing head of news, told staff: “We can’t walk away from the conversation”
The BBC’s head of news told LGBT staff that they must get used to hearing views they disagreed with as the corporation faced accusations from its own employees that it was “institutionally transphobic”.
Fran Unsworth, who is due to leave the corporation in January, was speaking on an often-hostile Zoom call with the BBC’s Pride network on Friday morning.
The meeting, in which Tim Davie, the director-general, also tried to reassure staff that he was concerned about LGBT inclusivity, was held in the wake of the corporation’s departure from Stonewall’s diversity champions scheme, under which it paid for advice and assessment from the charity.
Critics of the BBC’s participation in the scheme argued that it ran contrary to its commitment to impartiality because of Stonewall’s lobbying on transgender issues.

Two sources who attended the meeting said Unsworth, 63, told staff: “You’ll hear things you don’t personally like and see things you don’t like — that’s what the BBC is, and you have to get used to that.” She added: “These are the stories we tell. We can’t walk away from the conversation.”
A BBC journalist said: “Fran was totally calm but determined about it. She was reacting to questions from the network that implied people shouldn’t come across views they disliked. To me, it felt like she was having to explain journalism to idiots.”

Davie and Rhodri Talfan Davies, the BBC’s director of nations, who was also on the panel, also defended a recent article by the reporter Caroline Lowbridge, who interviewed lesbian women who felt “pressured and coerced into accepting trans women as partners”. The article on the BBC News website caused a furore both inside and outside the corporation, with more than 16,000 people signing an open letter demanding the BBC apologise. The pair are understood to have said that it was a good piece of journalism, with the caveat that a quotation had had to be removed after publication.

A BBC source added that the meeting was “extremely hostile” towards Davie, 54, who was previously chairman of a lesbian, gay and bisexual working group at the BBC. “He was told by one member of staff that he was not in a position to make decisions on this issue, because he’s not trans,” the source said. “Another said the BBC was institutionally transphobic.”
Davie told LGBT staff he would listen to their views, that he was concerned by the idea that LGBT staff were leaving the corporation over its policies and that it was a priority to make them feel comfortable at work.

A culture war has long been simmering in BBC newsrooms over its handling of transgender issues. Some staff, especially younger employees, argue that the rights of the minority group should not be debated; others believe that the BBC had become in thrall to Stonewall and journalists were not allowed to challenge the charity’s views. The latter group, many of whom are older female staff, believe that some of the policies transgender campaigners advocate infringe upon women’s rights, such as the right to single-sex spaces including refuges.
Some said they felt unable to express such views at the BBC. “If you mention it, it’s like Invasion of the Body Snatchers: everyone goes quiet and their faces go blank. Since Wednesday, conversations are already a lot freer,” one added.

Ben Hunte, a former LGBT correspondent for the BBC who now works for Vice News, wrote last week that LGBT employees at the BBC were leaving over its reporting on transgender issues. The BBC is interviewing for a replacement for Hunte.

The next front in this culture war is expected to be the corporation’s style guide for journalists.
In it, “homosexual” is defined as a person who is “attracted to people of their own gender”, which matches Stonewall’s advice, rather than “their own sex”. It also says journalists must use the pronoun “preferred by the person in question”. The BBC has published articles in which sex offenders who were born male but identify as transgender women were repeatedly referred to as “she”.
The BBC said the guide “is produced by BBC News who take all decisions on its content”.
It added: “The BBC has regular staff meetings, and this meeting was constructive and useful.” "

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fran-unsworth-tells-bbc-staff-get-used-to-hearing-views-you-dont-like-gz7f07cpk?fbclid=IwAR3WmUqpgfH8mfyQywA3FqGo0HOowb3FfHDDo6iSiX0vgYJ_E2N3XHryQQs

(my italics)