Discrimination Or Positive Action?

The BBC has been accused of discrimination after an internal email was leaked revealing that the Corporation is looking to recruit an "ethnically diverse" male reporter over the age of 30 for the One Show. The successful applicant should "ideally have a regional accent" and would preferably be someone who lives in Liverpool or Manchester, according to the leaked memo.

This follows recent headlines just two days ago where the BBC was accused of rejecting white applicants for two junior scriptwriting roles on a trainee scheme, as these positions were only open to people from "ethnic minority backgrounds".

Under the Equality Act, an employer must not discriminate against a job applicant on the basis of certain protected characteristics. This includes, amongst others, an applicant's race, age or sex. However, it may be lawful for an employer to require a job to be done by someone with a particular characteristic, if having that characteristic is an