Ms Maitlis, who left the BBC this year for rival media group Global, appeared to refer to Theresa May’s former communications director, Sir Robbie Gibb, in a speech which was scathing about the company’s alleged closeness to No 10 . Sir Robbie, who was appointed by Boris Johnson’s government to the BBC board last year, was Downing Street’s director of communications from 2017 to 2019. Before that, he worked at the BBC for 25 years, in roles including deputy editor of Newsnight and editor of The Daily Politics and This Week. Ms Maitlis’ comments came during the annual MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival on Wednesday night, when she criticized the BBC for “trying to appease” No 10 by issuing a quick apology for a Newsnight monologue she made about travel of Dominic Cummings who broke the lockdown. in Durham. Presenting an episode of the program in 2020, Ms Maitlis said Mr Cummings, then chief adviser to Boris Johnson, had “broken the rules” with a blockade trip to Durham and “the country can see that and is shocked that the government cannot”. The BBC received more than 20,000 complaints and found it to be in breach of impartiality rules. But Ms Maitlis said the program initially “went through with some pleasantries from BBC editors and frankly little else”. “It wasn’t until the next morning that the wheels fell off. A complaint phone call was made from Downing Street to BBC News. “That – for context – is not unusual. It was not unusual in the Blair days – far from it – in the Brown days, in the Cameron days. What I am saying is that it is normal for government doctors to express their displeasure to journalists”. But he added: “What was not foreseen was the speed with which the BBC sought to appease the complainant. Within hours, there was a very public apology, the program was accused of failing to be fair, the recording disappeared from iPlayer and there were paparazzi outside my front door. Robbie Gibb was Theresa May’s chief communications officer (Getty Images) “Why did the BBC immediately and publicly seek to confirm the government spokesman’s view, without any kind of due process?” He suggested BBC bosses were sending a message of reassurance to the government. In an apparent reference to Sir Robbie, Ms Maitlis added: “Put it in the context of the BBC board, where another active Conservative operative – a former Downing Street spin doctor and former adviser to BBC rival GB News – he now sits and acts. as an arbiter of the BBC’s impartiality’. He also claimed that journalists are now self-censoring to avoid backlash for their work. The Independent asked the BBC to respond to criticism of Sir Robbie. On the program featuring her monologue, a BBC spokesman said: “The BBC places the highest value on due impartiality and accuracy and we apply these principles to our reporting on all matters. “As we have previously made clear in relation to Newsnight, we did not take action as a result of any pressure from No 10 or the Government, and to suggest otherwise is wrong. “The BBC found that the program breached its editorial standards and this decision still stands.”
