[Newshound47]

But that's not the case. There are guidelines for BBC staff to be impartial on current politics and Gary Lineker as a recipient of licence fee money is required to uphold that. There are other broadcasters available if he wants freedom to express his own opinions.

I listened to the Media Show podcast on this and they made the point that If Lineker had been more nuanced and said something like "I support the refugees and refugees should be treated more humanely", there likely wound't have been an issue. It's the direct point about a government minister linking them to Nazi Germany where the issue is. Agree or disagree with the statement it was political and deliberately controversial. And you simply can't do that and take a wage from the BBC.

(Responding to the first point)

The wider question is why non-News staff need to be covered by those impartiality rules. It's not like he's going to be hosting a debate on the politics of the day anytime soon. Same with anyone else working in Sports or anything else non-News related.

The license fee part arguably is irrelevant. The BBC isn't the civil service. It's not like it in itself is working on implementing government policies in a way that civil servants should refrain from openly criticizing it.

At the lower levels of the Civil Service you allowed to be openly political (Political Party membership for example) just not allowed to criticise stuff that might come under your work.