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BBC urged to gag or sack animal rights campaigner Chris Packham

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By John Glenday, Reporter

September 8, 2015 | 2 min read

The BBC has come under pressure from the Countryside Alliance to gag or sack wildlife presenter Chris Packham over his outspoken views against the hunting lobby.

BBC, Chris Packham

Packham, who rose to fame presenting The Really Wild Show in the eighties, is a familiar face to viewers of the BBC’s Springwatch programme, but has courted controversy through his column in BBC Wildlife magazine – where he attacks the ESPB and Wildlife Trusts for failing to oppose a return to fox hunting.

Despite being a vice-president of the RSPB Packham wrote that the organisation was guilty of ‘fence sitting and ineffectual risk-avoidance’.

The remarks drew scorn from Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, who retorted: “It is bad enough that a BBC magazine should print such blatant political propaganda, but worse that it comes from the pen of one of its prominent employees.

“As it is an ongoing behaviour, rather than an isolated incident, it is difficult to see how the situation can change.

“If it does not then the BBC’s only answer can be to remove the BBC from Chris Packham’s biography by refusing to employ him anymore.”

Both charities have dismissed Packham’s claims as baseless.

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