Letter: Salaries of BBC interviewers

Sir: The high-profile presenters of BBC news programmes have been responsible for some vicious interrogations of MPs and directors of privatised industries about their interests and salaries. We now learn that the interrogators have been teaching some of the interrogated how to stand up to interrogation ("Top TV presenters paid pounds 5,000 a day for corporate work", 10 July).

BBC presenters are public servants, their salaries part-financed by the nation's taxpayers. Should we not also ask these presenters to justify a salary almost five times that of an MEP or backbench MP?

BBC (and ITN) broadcasters are all too ready to offer personal comments as though they are hard facts to the audience. Under these circumstances, a register of BBC broadcasters' financial interests is essential. These people purport to be judges but they need also to be judged.

Yours faithfully,

James Moorhouse

MEP for London South and

Surrey East (Con)

European Parliament

London, SW1

11 July