The Commission for Racial Equality is investigating a claim that the BBC practised racial discrimination by hiring a former Miss Northern Ireland to present Blue Peter.
Retired teacher Dorian Wood has lodged a complaint accusing the BBC of deliberately setting out to find someone of "Celtic origin" by advertising in local Scottish and Northern Ireland newspapers. Mr Wood said the corporation was guilty of "crackpot political correctness" when it hired 24-year-old former beauty queen Zoe Salmon.
The BBC rejected his claim and said the search for a presenter was "the widest recruitment ever undertaken" in children's TV.
Mr Wood told London's Evening Standard newspaper: "They specifically set out to recruit from Ulster and Scotland to find people of a Celtic origin and, in my view, that amounts to racial discrimination. Somebody clearly said they wanted someone with an Irish or Scottish accent.
"What about the other people with regional and rural accents? I am irritated by the hypocrisy of the BBC because they overtly state their equal opportunities credentials, yet they clearly have a covert ethnic and cultural agenda for the programme."
The job advert for the children's show was placed in various Scottish and Northern Ireland newspapers. But the BBC rejected Mr Wood's claims and pointed out that adverts were also placed in UK-wide publications including the Stage.
A spokesman for the Commission for Racial Equality confirmed: "We have received a letter of complaint from a member of the public . . . We are looking at the matter and it will be dealt with in the usual way."
Ms Salmon, from Bangor, became the 30th presenter of the children's show in October last year. She had no idea she was applying for the Blue Peter job when she answered an anonymous advert in her local paper asking for would-be TV presenters. - (PA)