Sidelined: O'Donoghue, with partner Sarah and daughter Lucy. He believes he was not asked to report his scoop on TV because of his blindness

The BBC takes great pains to point out that it is an equal opportunities employer.

But if the case of Gary O'Donoghue is anything to go by, it fails to practise what it preaches.

The veteran political correspondent, who is blind, has received a five-figure payout from the corporation after claiming he was stopped from presenting his own story on the Ten O'Clock News.

O'Donoghue, who works mainly in radio, picked up a story last August about how the then new Prime Minister Gordon Brown was cutting short his holiday to return to the UK and deal with an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Surrey.

He was the duty reporter on the late shift at Westminster and expected to report his scoop on the TV news, where it was the lead item.

But Ten O'Clock News deputy editor Daniel Pearl is understood to have handed the story to another reporter, June Kelly.

Sources claim that on the night, programme chiefs called the corporation's Westminster bureau, where O'Donoghue was based, to say they did not want him presenting it.

It is understood that Pearl, now being tipped as the next editor of Newsnight, said he wanted a 'proper pol corr' on screen instead.

Senior figures at the Westminster base were said to have been shocked by the order.

O'Donoghue is said to have believed that it happened because bosses did not want to have a blind person presenting the lead story and that he was the victim of discrimination.

An internal inquiry was held but it found no evidence of this.

It was only with the threat of an embarrassing employment tribunal looming that the BBC settled with him. He continues to work for the corporation.

Substitute: The BBC's June Kelly

As a result of the case, the BBC is now sending hundreds of staff on disability awareness schemes.

A source close to the case said: 'Gary broke the story, but he was not used at the end of it.

'He was there, available and on duty, and other were brought in to do it.'

The source added: 'Nobody could say that Gary was not a good political correspondent. This will have been a real lesson for the BBC.'

The case is particularly embarrassing for the corporation as it takes pride in appearing to be politically correct on diversity issues.

In job adverts it proclaims: 'At the BBC we respect each other and celebrate our diversity so that everyone gives their best. The BBC positively encourages applications from all parts of the community and is committed to promoting equality of opportunity.'

Last year corporation chiefs decided to waive their bonuses after failing to recruit more disabled and ethnic minority staff. Director general Mark Thompson and top executives decided not to take payments worth £350,000 after the corporation missed targets.

O'Donoghue, a white cane user who played blind football for England, said in an interview with the BBC's disability website Ouch! that he struggles to contain his anger 'when it comes to idiotic views of my disability'.

The reporter, who has a young daughter, has admitted he has to work significantly harder than others at the BBC as a result of being blind.

'You'd hope familiarity would breed more understanding, but that's not always the case either.'

O'Donoghue yesterday said he was not able to discuss the issue and that he had reached an ' amicable agreement' with the BBC.

The corporation said it never spoke about individuals.