"It’s a measure of the McCarthyite times in which we live that Sir David Attenborough – without question the nation’s most revered broadcaster – has been told to desist from making any more disparaging comments about Brexit.
“Sir David was shocked that he should be cautioned in this way at his at his time of life,” discloses a friend of the 92-year-old Blue Planet presenter. “He cherishes freedom of speech above all things.”
Although strictly speaking a freelance, Sir David raised eyebrows at the corporation – and brought down upon himself the wrath of the Daily Mail – when he said that the referendum two years ago was an “abrogation of democracy” and said he was alarmed by “the rise of nationalism”. He also suggested Michael Gove either couldn’t – or wouldn’t – grasp the implications of leaving the EU.
Ludicrously, the Mail, in a subsequent hatchet job, quoted an unidentified Brextremist saying: “Sir David is spitting at Brexit voters and spending too much time using UK taxpayers’ money [sic] filming animals instead of speaking with people.”
That interview Sir David, pictured, gave was almost a year ago, and, since then, he has sadly kept this thoughts to himself on the issue. When I called him to ask him if he had been muzzled, the normally charming and convivial broadcaster said he would prefer not to comment.
• UPDATE: The BBC have got in touch with me to say that they have exerted no pressure on Sir David to desist from making disparaging comments about Brexit. I ask if I can hear this from the great man himself. Sir David duly telephones me to say that he has no view about Brexit “one way or the other” and that he has not been pressurised by the BBC on this issue. He hadn’t the time to explain his position to me in detail when we spoke briefly last week." https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/sir-david-attenborough-told-to-button-it-on-brexit-writes-tim-walker-1-5592606