After director general Tim Davie told staff to avoid displays of bias, arguments about red, white or black poppies have broken out
The wearing of commemorative poppies on BBC television channels has been newly weaponised this weekend in the wake of director general Tim Davie’s guidance on avoiding “virtue signalling” and political bias, both on and off air.
His wider advice to refrain from campaigning, and even from the use of emojis, has already prompted ridicule from broadcasters including Huw Edwards, who responded by posting a series of Welsh emojis, Mark Mardell, who left his job after 30 years at the BBC on Thursday promising on air to tweet a weeping emoji, and by the Radio 5 Live presenter Nihal Arthanayake who tweeted: “Looks like I won’t be calling racists rude words any more.”
