Gary Lineker, 62, appears to have jibed at his impartiality row with the BBC with his new profile picture on Twitter. The presenter has changed the image to one of himself superimposed onto a wall outside Broadcasting House, the headquarters of the BBC in London.
The wall, which is behind a statue of George Orwell, is inscribed with the words: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
The phrase is from an unused preface to Orwell’s 1945 novella, Animal Farm.
The photograph of Gary, which has been edited to look like he is standing in front of the wall, appears to be from paparazzi photos taken outside his home earlier this week.
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It comes after Gary was briefly suspended from Match of the Day over a tweet comparing the language used to launch a new Government asylum seeker policy to that of 1930s Germany.
Football coverage on the BBC then descended into chaos as other presenters including Alan Shearer, Ian Wright and Alex Scott joined a walkout in solidarity with Lineker.
The BBC subsequently apologised and reinstated him as host of MOTD, while director-general Tim Davie announced a review of social media guidelines at the broadcaster.
On Tuesday, Gary questioned Twitter owner Elon Musk after a threatening message was sent to his son, George, in the wake of the impartiality row.
He re-shared a private message which said Gary’s eldest should be “burned at the stake” for his public support of his father.
The abusive message, from an account with only one follower, described George as a “mug” for “sticking up” for what his father said.
It concluded: “You need to be burned at the stake.”
Gary wrote: “Is this acceptable Twitter @elonmusk? And I don’t mean the grammar.”
Earlier in the day, George had tweeted: “Social media’s mad isn’t it. Over the last few days, on insta – never had so many nice messages. On Twitter – never had so much abuse.
“It’s not even anything to do with me.” (sic)
BBC sports presenter Mark Chapman returned on Monday after boycotting his weekend shows and noted that some staff members had been “at the receiving end of abuse for just doing their jobs”.
He added: “It is disgusting and unfair, and it is ironic that in a row over impartiality, we have all been seen to be taking sides and I feel there are lessons to be learned by all involved.”
On Tuesday, Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes told a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee meeting that it had been a “really difficult episode for the BBC” but that she hopes “they can find their way through it”.
She said the BBC’s social media guidelines are not a matter for the media watchdog but for the broadcaster’s board to “draw that line” in order to safeguard the BBC’s reputation.