BBC presenter Jonathan Dimbleby has been censured by the BBC Trust for a serious breach of the corporation’s guidelines after he used an appearance on Radio 4’s Today programme to plug the cancer charity set up in memory of his father.
Dimbleby, who used a trail for his Radio 4 show Any Questions to mention a 50km walk in aid of Dimbleby Cancer Care, appeared to pre-empt the criticism by asking Today presenter Justin Webb: “Now I will be sacked won’t I?”
Dimbleby, appearing on Today on 29 May, said he would not be appearing on the following week’s programme because he would be leading the night-time walk through London.
The walk, which featured Dimbleby and 100 charity walkers, raised £95,000 for the charity to mark 50 years after the death of his father Richard Dimbleby from cancer in 1965.
“Well it’s going to hit me in the face I think probably,” said Dimbleby, the brother of Question Time presenter David Dimbleby.
“I’m not going to be with you next Friday morning. I haven’t resigned, I haven’t been sacked – yet. If you want to support our walk, you can find out more online – Dimbleby Cancer Care. Er, now I will be sacked won’t I?”
Webb replied “I won’t answer that actually, Jonathan”, to which Dimbleby responded “No I think you’d better not.”
Webb said he would support him “privately”. Dimbelby told him: “You’re a good man, thanks.”
The presenter was later spoken to by both the BBC’s director of editorial policy David Jordan and the BBC’s director of radio production.
The BBC Trust’s editorial complaints committee said on Tuesday it was a “serious breach” of editorial guidelines and said the BBC had “strict protocols around the broadcast of charitable appeals”.
It said the exchange went “significantly beyond what could be editorially justifiable”.
Trustees said they appreciated that Dimbleby had a “strong emotional link to the charity. However, a considerable number of other well-known BBC correspondents and presenters also had enduring links with particular causes and charities to which they had an equally significant emotional commitment.”
“The timing of the trail [7.30am] gave the presenter access to a very large audience – and that other charities did not have the opportunity to reach that audience,” they added.
BBC guidelines say: “Any work undertaken for, or in support of, a charity ... should not imply BBC endorsement for one charity or cause above others. BBC programmes should not appeal for funds for charities or urge audienes to give money to any particular charity.”
Dimbleby began by telling Webb he wanted to “add a football, a personal football, a footnote not football – well – it’ll turn out to be a football”.
