BBC: 'We would work with O'Reilly again'

The BBC has claimed that it would work with Miriam O'Reilly again, despite an employment tribunal ruling that the corporation was guilty of age discrimination against the former Countryfile presenter.

Today, a tribunal upheld O'Reilly's claims of age discrimination and victimisation against the BBC, but dismissed her charges of sex discrimination. She will now receive significant damages from the BBC.

The case stems from the BBC's decision to drop O'Reilly along with four other female presenters from rural affairs programme Countryfile when the show moved to primetime Sunday evenings.

"We accept the findings of the tribunal and would like to apologise to Miriam. We will be speaking to her," the BBC said in a statement.

"The BBC is committed to fair selection in every aspect of our work and we clearly did not get it right in this case."

In response to the ruling, the BBC has pledged to "ensure that senior editorial executives responsible for these kinds of decisions in the BBC undergo additional training in the selection and appointment of presenters".

The corporation further said that it will "produce new guidance on fair selection for presenter appointments".

In his new capacity as chair of the Cultural Diversity Network, BBC director general Mark Thompson also plans to raise the topic of "fair representation of people of all ages across the broadcasting industry".

The BBC added: "We would like to acknowledge the important contribution Miriam has made to the BBC over more than 20 years and we would welcome the opportunity to discuss working with her again in the future."