{"id":135774,"date":"2023-12-20T03:40:28","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T03:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluemull.com\/?p=135774"},"modified":"2023-12-20T03:40:28","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T03:40:28","slug":"nihal-arthanayake-saw-lack-of-diversity-in-work-over-long-period","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluemull.com\/world-news\/nihal-arthanayake-saw-lack-of-diversity-in-work-over-long-period\/","title":{"rendered":"Nihal Arthanayake saw &apos;lack of diversity in work over long period&apos;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1> BBC&#8217;s Nihal Arthanayake says he saw &#8216;a lack of diversity in my workplace over a long period of time&#8217; &#8211; weeks after Radio 5 Live presenter said working at the &#8216;overwhelmingly white&#8217; Beeb was bad for his mental health<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The 52-year-old said the &#8216; lack of diversity&#8217; at the BBC was &#8216;isolating and lonely&#8217;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Nihal Arthanayake says he saw &#8216;a lack of diversity in my workplace over a long period of time,&#8217; weeks after the Radio 5 Live presenter said working at the &#8216;overwhelmingly white&#8217; BBC was bad for his mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 52-year-old presenter posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the &#8216;<span>lack of diversity&#8217; at the publicly-funded broadcaster\u00a0was &#8216;isolating and lonely&#8217;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span>Arthanayake also accused &#8216;gbeebies [GB News] loving types&#8217; of making him out to be &#8216;anti-white racist, adding:\u00a0If a single one of them think I am going to be quiet they are even more stupid&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the Journalism Diversity Fund (JDF) conference at BBC Media City in Salford last month, he said: &#8216;I&#8217;ve seen a lot of people leave this building because they couldn&#8217;t deal with the culture.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Arthanayake, who is of Sri Lankan descent, told the conference: &#8216;It&#8217;s really affecting me that I walk in and all I see is white people.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/19\/19\/79142489-12882005-image-a-7_1703015786628.jpg\" height=\"421\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The 52-year-old presenter posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the &#8216; lack of diversity&#8217; at the publicly-funded broadcaster had left him &#8216;feeling isolated and lonely<\/p>\n<p>His colleagues&#8217; response when he told them this was to reply defensively that they were not being racist, he claimed as he said that was missing the point.<\/p>\n<p>The journalist&#8217;s latest tweet was met with a strong backlash from some users who accused of him of being &#8216;anti-white&#8217; and suggested that if the same comment came from the opposite perspective of white person, it would branded racist.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The author of &#8216;Let&#8217;s talk: How to have better conversations&#8217;, hit out at the criticism by posting: &#8216;Racists calling me a racist is peak 2023 on this platform [X],&#8217; before urging his followers to follow him on rival platform Threads and &#8216;leave these racists, bigots and blue tick warriors to argue amongst themselves and shout at me&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Pro-Brexit activist James Goddard said: If it\u2019s isolating and lonely then go to Sri Lanka where you\u2019ll feel at home. The British people were never asked if we wanted millions of foreigners in our country.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;If we were asked, we wouldn\u2019t be in the mess we\u2019re in today with anti white racists like you being given a platform to spout your hate&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>One user said that if the presenter felt isolated and that he was bring treated differently, he could have raised a grievance but if his complaint is down to skin colour only, then its a reflection of his prejudice.<\/p>\n<p>But Arthanayake responded by saying: &#8216;Some white people have been seeing our colour and treating us accordingly ever since we got here&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Other users came to show their support of\u00a0Arthanayake, such as Michael Volpe OBE,\u00a0 founder &amp; former CEO of Opera Holland Park, who posted on X: &#8216;The relentless racism that [LBC presenter] Sangita Myska, Nihal Arthanayake and [Lingo presenter] Adil Ray &#8211; 3 prominent British broadcasters get tells a depressing story.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/19\/19\/79142501-12882005-image-a-9_1703015805652.jpg\" height=\"226\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Nihal Arthanayake says he saw &#8216;a lack of diversity in my workplace over a long period of time&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/19\/19\/79142493-12882005-image-a-8_1703015794398.jpg\" height=\"905\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The journalist&#8217;s latest tweet was met with a strong backlash from some users who accused of him of being &#8216;anti-white&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/19\/19\/78384167-12882005-Presenter_said_his_colleagues_response_when_he_told_them_this_wa-a-10_1703015888567.jpg\" height=\"958\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Presenter said his colleagues&#8217; response when he told them this was to reply defensively that they were not being racist, he claimed as he said that was missing the point<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Basically if your skin is not white, for too many people you will NEVER be English\/British. My skin is white and I will never be British either&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>At the JDF&#8217;s conference last month,\u00a0Arthanayake said:\u00a0&#8216;I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s a single Muslim involved in the senior editorial processes&#8217; at BBC Radio 5 Live.<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8216;The hardest thing is to walk into a room, look around and nobody looks like you.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The presenter made the comments in an on-stage interview with Jo Adetunji, editor of The Conversation, at the JDF&#8217;s annual equality, diversity and inclusion conference organised by the NCTJ, which trains new journalists.<\/p>\n<h3>READ MORE:\u00a0Nihal Arthanayake says working at the overwhelmingly white BBC is bad for his mental health<\/h3>\n<p>The JDF awards bursaries to aspiring journalists from diverse backgrounds who do not have the financial means to support themselves through their training.<\/p>\n<p>Arthanayake added that he has noticed a difference since moving north after living in London for 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8216;Since moving up here, being called the P-word \u2013 that didn&#8217;t happen in London.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;You&#8217;d get a slap for that in London, not even from me.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Following the interview, Cheryl Varley, a BBC Radio 5 Live producer, said the organisation is committed to tackling the lack of diversity in its newsrooms.<\/p>\n<p>After inviting the JDF bursary recipients for a tour of the newsroom at the end of the conference, she told them: &#8216;The BBC needs you a lot more than you need them because if we do not represent our audience the future for the BBC is grim.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The MailOnline has approached the BBC for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12882005\/BBCs-Nihal-Arthanayake-says-saw-lack-diversity-workplace-long-period-time-weeks-Radio-5-Live-presenter-said-working-overwhelmingly-white-Beeb-bad-mental-health.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC&#8217;s Nihal Arthanayake says he saw &#8216;a lack of diversity in my workplace over a long period of time&#8217; 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