Paxman: White middle-class men face discrimination at BBC

The Newsnight presenter, 58, pointed to a string of women senior executives as evidence of their growing dominance in the industry.

And he even said he had advised white middle-class men not to bother going into TV because they have little chance of succeeding.

Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman claims white middle-class males are most discriminated at the 'female-dominated BBC'

But his comments were attacked by TV presenter Mariella Frostrup, who said women were still 'struggling to achieve'.

Outraged: Television presenter and journalist Mariella Frostrup claims men still dominate our screens

Speaking on a filmed interview, which was aired at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Paxman said: 'The worst thing you can be in this industry now is to be a middle-class white male.

'Any middle-class white male who I come across that wants to enter television, I tell them to give up, there's no hope.

'Do I think it is a man's world? That is the most ridiculous question I have been asked all week.'

He then listed several women in senior positions, including BBC Vision director Jana Bennett and BBC1 Controller Jay Hunt, adding: 'Is this evidence of some male conspiracy keeping women down?'

But his comments provoked an angry response from TV presenter Miss Frostrup, a former host of BBC2's The Culture Show, during a debate called Women Know Your Place.

She said women were often overlooked for the chance to present highbrow shows and were more likely to front home or lifestyle programmes.

Miss Frostrup, 45, told the festival: 'He names about five women because he couldn't possibly name all the men in positions of power in TV because he would have been there all bloody day.

'He talks about middle-class men as a beleaguered species but excuse me  -  Jonathan Ross, Jeremy on Newsnight, the Today programme, Have I Got News For You, QI. It seems that television is a fantastic place to be... for middle-class white men.

'They very much tend to be in the positions of gravitas that women are still struggling to
achieve.' She also attacked BBC programme makers over the way they treated her when she returned to work after having a baby.

The presenter said she was forced to quit The Culture Show after a producer told her that breastfeeding her first child during filming was ' inconvenient' for their schedules.

Earlier this year, Miss Frostrup launched a tirade against the BBC's long-running topical news panel show, Have I Got News For You, which she called 'a disgrace'.

She claimed women were only invited on to the programme as a token presence to be ridiculed by 'testosterone fuelled' team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop.

The BBC has also come under fire over claims of sexism after it axed women over 50 from presenting roles.

There was widespread anger over the way newsreader Moira Stuart was dumped in favour of younger presenters, while Anna Ford, Selina Scott and Kate Adie, have all criticised the corporation's obsession with looks.

This has led to claims that while older men like Peter Sissons keep their news presenting roles, older women have all but disappeared off our screens.

Paxman's latest outburst comes just over a week after he was accused of offending the Scottish, having described the country's national poet Robert Burns as 'no more than a king of sentimental doggerel'.

His comments were branded as 'nonsense' and a 'disservice' to Scotland by his critics.