BBC not doing a good job at portrayal of older women, blasts watchdog boss
Ofcom chief Sharon White says corporation is not doing a good job at representing the whole nation
THE BBC is not doing as good a job as it should be in its portrayal of older women, a media watchdog chief claims.
Ofcom chief Sharon White said it was falling short on representing the whole nation.
She told the Financial Times: “All the research we have done broadly shows that people think the BBC is doing a good job.
“But on older women it is not doing as good a job as it should be. There is a gap there.”
The BBC lost a discrimination case brought by Countryfile presenter Miriam O’Reilly, now 59, sacked in 2009 to make way for younger hosts.
Even Director-General Lord Hall said there is an issue with a lack of older women and pledged to sort it two years ago.
Ofcom research shows a quarter of viewers think terrestrial broadcasters fail to properly represent women aged over 55.
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And 17 per cent of women aged over 55 believe they are portrayed negatively on screen.
Viewers have also backed former BBC news presenter Sian Williams, 51, who has said too few women her age or over are presenting the news regularly.
The BBC said it was “always happy to debate what we do on screen”.