[bbctvtechop]

For me the more interesting aspect to this is of the employment law side. 

If the BBC say that everyone who does any work for them in any capacity, take any license fee money, has to be impartial in their work and personal life outside the corporation, that would be unprecedented and possibly illegal. In no other field would a freelance (eg) project manager agree that for every other client they work for, Company A's rules must be followed. It would be ludicrous. Are we really saying that because Nigel Farage gets paid an appearance fee to talk about Brexit for 4 minutes on BBC News, that he should be totally impartial in his newspaper columns? What about when a News presenter appears on Strictly or a presents HIGNFY? Should they be absolute in their impartiality? 

The situation now feels very vague and Linekar has identified this and believes what he writes in a personal capacity on a social media channel which has nothing to do with the BBC should be allowed. FWIW I agree with him.