[Stockland Hillman]

This just shows why some stars, presenters etc are reluctant to work for the BBC and why a lot of their BBC news team have left for the commercial sector such as Jon Sopel, Emily Maitlis, Andrew Marr.

It is mostly presenters who feel a need to state their political views strongly - well maybe they need to think again before accepting work at the BBC and head to ITV, Channel 4 etc instead, if they feel this need to air their views in public so strongly.

One thing I like about Channel 4 is their presenters on The Last Leg for example can say whatever they like, I remember the days of Adam's rants on the show, which if he worked for the BBC, he would be fired for now.

Say what they like on Channel 4? Really?

www.channel4.com 

Note it specifically references the fact individual contracts can contain other restrictions . Having seen such a contract, I can tell you it contains many of the things certain posters here keep saying are impossible, it contextualises why Broadcasting needs the restrictions, what areas of policy and law its designed to deal with; the risks, costs and losses involved , so thus proportionality is argued and agreed to from the outset.

Channel 4 may choose to implement a policy differentially, but they don't allow a free for all.

And not one word uttered by a host on a prerecorded show wouldn't have been agreed in advance with producers, reviewed by lawyers, senior staff of production Co and the channel commissioning team; and no live show host would do the job unless they were trusted to stick to a pre approved script. It's not a shoddy community radio station where Dave opens the mic and says what he wants.