A BBC Northern Ireland reporter has been suspended after criticising his employers over the decision to include boxer Tyson Fury in its Sports Personality Of The Year shortlist.
Belfast-based Andy West confirmed his suspension from the BBC to his Twitter followers on Thursday.
I can't say more but, as of yesterday, I am suspended by the BBC pending investigation. I made my bed now I have time to lie in it!
— Andy West (@andywestTV) December 10, 2015
West vented his anger over Fury’s attempt to link homosexuality to paedophilia during an interview, by posting a message stating that he was ashamed to work for the corporation.
The journalist has said he has written to the BBC director general, Tony Hall, over Fury’s nomination.
In his online post, West wrote:
My employer is hurting me and other gay people by celebrating someone who considers me no better than a paedophile and who believes homosexual people are helping to bring about the end of the world.
It’s tempting to see him for the laughable idiot he is but sadly there are many other idiots who will be inspired and encourage by his naive, juvenile bigotry. I am ashamed to work for the BBC when it lacks bravery to admit it is making a mistake.
The BBC said: “We do not routinely comment on individual staff matters.”
Fury has also been criticised for making sexist comments of late having said that British heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill “looks quite fit when she’s got a dress on”.
In an interview ahead of his win over Wladimir Klitschko, the Manchester-born boxer whose family originate from Galway, also suggested “a woman’s best place is in the kitchen or on her back”.
Almost 135,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Fury to be removed from the shortlist for the annual BBC sports award.
Meanwhile, the British Boxing Board of Control have asked Fury to attend an interview with the governing body in the new year to discuss his recent conduct in the media.
