BBC denies claims presenter was paid £175,000 for just 23 hours' work
The BBC has furiously denied claims one of its highest-paid journalists was handed £175,000 for doing just 23 hours of work.
A report in the Sun newspaper claimed Jim Naughtie, who presented the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 for more than 20 years, was on the air last year for just 23 hours.
The corporation has been under pressure to justify the high salaries of some of its top talent in the year it was asked to make major budget savings.
But a BBC spokeswoman said the report was “factually wrong”.
“Jim is one of the most recognisable voices on radio but listing some of his on-air hours does not represent any of the behind the scenes work he is involved in, and this list is incomplete and doesn’t include, for example, Jim’s work for the BBC World Service.”
The spokeswoman would not disclose how many hours of radio airtime the veteran presenter had actually completed in the 2019-20 financial year.
Pay of £175,000 for 23 hours’ of work would amount to £7,608 per hour, or £126 per minute.
Mr Naughtie’s work in the year in question included eight hours on Radio 4’s election night programme with Emma Barnett and high-profile interviews with John Le Carre and Bernard Ingram.
The presenter rose to fame as the presenter of Today from 1994-2015.
The news comes after the BBC released the pay of its top presenters and journalists, revealing the £1.36 million earnings of Radio 2’s Zoe Ball.
Gary Lineker, Graham Norton, Steve Wright and Huw Edwards completed the top five salaries.
Staff pay at the BBC increased by 3.5 per cent in the past year to reach a total of £1.5 billion.
Critics said it was wrong for pay to continue to increase while changes to the licence fee mean over-75s now have to pay.
Tim Davie, the BBC’s new Director General, defended the pay of his staff and said he would expect top talent to come to the corporation at a “significant discount to what they’d get in the open market”.
“We will invest in very limited situations in particular markets to ensure we have got the best talent,” he added.
Andrew Bridgen, a Tory MP, told the Sun: “This expenditure would be indefensible at the best of times but certainly not when they are charging over-75s for a licence fee.
“I don’t know how BBC bosses can sleep at night.
“These huge salaries are paid for off the backs of pensioners, some of the most vulnerable in society.”
