TOP BLACK creatives, including Sir Lenny Henry, have written to the BBC over the rejection of diversity champion Marcus Ryder to a top BBC job.

The senior black journalists say Mr Ryder was blocked from taking a senior role at the BBC by the corporation’s director-general, Tim Davie, who was said to be worried by Mr Ryder’s public interventions on race.

Now a letter has been sent to the BBC’s chair, Richard Sharp, from senior black and Asian journalists who are seeking reassurances that “advocating for our industry to be diverse will not block people from being employed by the BBC.”

Prominent black journalists and other creatives who signed the letter include Afua Hirsch, Professor Gary Younge and Adrian Lester.

The letter was organised by Angela Ferriera, an experienced executive producer, after suspicions that Mr Davie had ‘blocked’ Mr Ryder on the basis that Mr Ryder had ‘campaigned’ on race equality.

It was reported that Mr Davie did not want any more grief after blogs like Guido Fawkes had recently campaigned against the appointment of Jess Brammar as BBC’s domestic and international news channels on grounds that she was ‘too left-wing’.

Mr Ryder had been headhunted to be Radio 1’s Newsbeat bulletins and Asian Network news service.

The BBC strongly denied that Mr Ryder was blocked or vetoed.

Mr Ryder, who is a visiting professor at the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, said that he had only ever twice publicly disagreed with the BBC – when Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty had been reprimanded for her views on Donald Trump and over the broadcasting of the n-word. 

In both cases the then director-general, Tony Hall, had reversed previous BBC decisions, effectively agreeing with Mr Ryder’s positions.

The letter to Mr Sharp said: “We do not believe championing diversity and inclusion, fighting racism, and making our profession a more equitable place for people to work, should ever be viewed as an impartiality issue.

“The reports over the last few days have had a chilling effect amongst all journalists and production staff of colour – that talking about diversity will disadvantage us and be used against us if we ever want to work at BBC News or indeed anywhere at the BBC.”

Other UK figures to have put their name to the document include Joseph Harker and Hugh Muir of The Guardian, Professor Kurt Barling, Dr Clive James Nwonka, and editor of The Voice Lester Holloway.

A BBC spokesman said: “We’d never comment on who did or didn’t apply for a job. 

“After an external search, BBC News decided that as this role was bringing together departments from across the country, we were looking for an internal candidate with an existing understanding of the BBC, so did not take forward any external candidates for this particular post. 

“After a separate recruitment process, we appointed an internal candidate on a year’s secondment. This was a BBC News decision. It is wrong to suggest any veto was exercised on any candidate.

“We are committed to being an inclusive and welcoming organisation which reflects the diversity of the UK both on and off screen, and we have targets to boost representation at the centre of our Diversity and Inclusion Plan which launched earlier this year.”

The open letter invites more signatories: https://forms.gle/j7hQPHgYT7uYvYc17

UPDATE 17:56 21/10: This story was updated to put the word ‘blocked’ in inverted commas in the stand-first, and a very short sentence was added make clear that the BBC strongly disputes that Mr Davie blocked or vetoed the appointment of Mr Ryder.