Half the jobs on a new journalism course have gone to applicants from ethnic minorities, despite non-whites making up only a tenth of the population.

Yesterday the Beeb was accused of bias by deliberately recruiting non-whites.

But the corporation hit back claiming it recruited candidates based solely on their performance during interviews.

Yesterday one white job-seeker said he was turned down ­because he did not have enough experience in writing stories about people from different racial backgrounds.

He said: “I thought asking the same question to my ethnic minority rivals would be very unfair as they will have a natural ­advantage, being from such a background.

“I did also think it strange that the BBC organisers took photos of all the candidates. They said it was to ‘remember our faces’ but now I think it was to confirm what race candidates were when considering who to take on.”

In the last three years, 24 of the 51 places on the year-long scheme, which offers on-the-job training, have gone to non-whites.

And 64% of those accepted were women – with more than half from ethnic minorities.

The row comes just days after Bristol City Council was criticised for banning white people from applying for its management training scheme in a bid to bump up the number of ethnic minority workers.

The Beeb was famously blasted as “hideously white” by former director-general Greg Dyke, 63.

And it now has a target of recruiting at least 12.5% of its 23,000 staff from ethnic minorities.

The latest figures show it had almost achieved that last January.

Last night a BBC spokesman said: “The allocation of places is based solely on the candidates’ performance during the assessment.

“We work hard to actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and there is a very intensive short listing and selection process which ­assesses a whole range of competencies.”

It is against the law to offer a job to one candidate over someone who is equally qualified because of their skin colour.

Daily Star 4/6/10