The campaign group Liberty and Law has asked the chair of the Commission for Racial Equality to intervene after the BBC's editorial director of diversity publicly lamented the corporation's use of predominantly white reporters to report from non-white countries.
Mary FitzPatrick, who was only appointed to the role in June this year, made her comments in a newspaper article featured in the Observer this weekend.
Liberty and Law director Gerald Hartup stated: "It is grossly inappropriate for Ms FitzPatrick to attack the professional ability and credibility of fellow journalists in this way. Her remarks make it difficult to see how journalists can be treated fairly given her key role at the BBC.
In the interview FitzPatrick said: "I think what's really important is that BBC News reflects the audience that it's serving. You need valid and culturally accurate voices speaking.
'I get tired of repeatedly seeing programmes where [the situation is] "here we are in Africa and here's a white person, saying well, look at these people."
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