John Humphrys: Listeners have a right to know what I think of the BBC

BBC Radio 4 presenter John Humphrys has defended his right to criticise the broadcaster, after causing a stir with comments about its management.

In a Radio Times interview last week, Humphrys described his employer as "grotesquely over-managed".

He is quoted in today's Telegraph saying listeners have a "right to know" what staff think.

The paper says he told the BBC's Feedback programme:

The idea that presenters like me or anybody in the BBC should take the view that the BBC is owned by the managers or by any other force than the licence payers is grotesque.

The BBC – and this might sound pompous so forgive me – is owned by the viewers and the listeners, the licence payers. And they should be told what people who work for the BBC think about it.

They have the right to know that, it seems to me.

It’s not being disloyal, it’s being exactly the opposite; it’s being loyal.

The BBC is different. We are all the BBC, that’s my point. I was entitled, even as a presenter on the BBC, to have a view.

Which is that it was over-managed. We are beginning to get on top of it now, the director-general thinks it was over-managed, the BBC thinks it was over-managed – maybe still is, maybe some more work needs to be done. I don’t think that’s contentious.

I think it would be po-faced for me to say ‘oh I’m not going to express a view on that’.