BBC editorial director apologises for £12,000 speaking fee days after facilitating 450 jobs cut

• The editorial director of BBC News has apologised for accepting a £12,000 fee to speak at a banking conference just days after he helped oversee the announcement of 450 journalist job cuts.
• Kamal Ahmed apologised to staff in an email yesterday and revealed he has now told the event organisers he will not take the money. Ahmed, who was economics editor at BBC News until he took up the management role in 2018, spoke at an event hosted by Aberdeen Standard Investments titled “Investing for the Future” last week.
• Ahmed came under fire both publicly and within the BBC for his £12,000 fee for the event after it was reported by the Mail on Sunday.
• In the email, he wrote: “I realise now that I did not think things through sufficiently at the time of the booking and, although I did not break any of the BBC’s guidelines on external speaking, it was a mistake to agree to a fee.

Source: Press Gazette

 

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