BBC accused of gagging former women employees with clauses

The 57-year-old former Countryfile host told the House of Lords Communications Committee that 
the corporation was escaping “comeback” for its actions.

She read out a number of statements from older women who, she said, were “forced to take redundancy” from news and current affairs jobs at the BBC.

“They signed confidentiality agreements as part of the pay-off, which means they can’t speak publicly about the way they went,” she said.

“In some ways this is what protects an organisation like the BBC. There’s no comeback on them because these confidentiality clauses act as gags.”

Ms O’Reilly won an employment tribunal against the corporation when she was rejected for a role on a revamped prime-time version of Countryfile.

The BBC said in a statement: “We don’t recognise the picture painted at the select committee.

“As we explained to the committee last week, nearly half of the BBC’s news and current affairs workforce is female, with 37.3 per cent in leadership positions in network news and 35.1 per cent in global news and we have a large number of on-air and management positions filled by women in news.

“Meanwhile, the BBC has led the industry through our Expert Women training programme and we have a range of flexible working arrangements.”

Responding to Ms O’Reilly’s comments, the BBC said: “She hasn’t been blacklisted.”