The BBC has described reports it is running “anti-white” recruitment campaigns as “utterly ridiculous and irresponsible”.

The Sun newspaper reports this morning the BBC is running four recruitment schemes open only to black, Asian or ethnic minorities, which the paper alleges are “anti-white”. 

The Sun reveals the BBC has recruited 17 presenters and 10 writers in two years via its creative diversity talent fund, senior leadership development programme, assistant commissioner development programme and creative access trainee scheme.

The paper quotes one jobseeker that claimed: “It’s racial discrimination and just wrong.

“If you applied for a position and got a reply saying it was only open to white applicants you’d quite rightly not be happy. This is exactly the same.”

But in a statement the BBC said the roles in question are not jobs but training and development opportunities that are permitted under the Equality Act. 

“To describe this as anti-white is utterly ridiculous and irresponsible, the statement adds. “As we have an under-representation of people from ethnic minority backgrounds in script editing roles at the BBC it's the right thing to do.”

A spokesperson for the BBC told Recruiter in a statement it has designed such training and development schemes as positive action schemes, aimed at addressing an identified under-representation in this area, adding the advert made it clear this opportunity was for BAME candidates. 

The spokesperson added the training programme is not the only route to these kinds of roles at the BBC.

Programmes include graduate-level traineeships in TV and radio production, apprenticeships across the UK aimed at those who have not been to university, a graduate-level journalism trainee scheme, apprenticeships in digital journalism and radio journalism, and a degree-level apprenticeship in broadcast engineering, with the potential to progress onto a Masters-level qualification in broadcast engineering.

Other opportunities include a graduate-level traineeship in digital, and non- graduate-level digital apprenticeships, a degree-level business management apprenticeship, and apprentice and graduate-level opportunities in the BBC’s legal department.

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