The presenter argued she should have been paid on a par with Jeremy Vine

The presenter argued that her pay for presenting Newswatch should have been on a par with that of Jeremy Vine, who presented Points of View. Ms. Ahmed was only paid £465 per episode for her programme, while Mr. Vine received £3,000 for his.

In a statement last year, she said: “On the back of my BBC ID card are written the BBC values, which include, ‘We respect each other and celebrate our diversity,’ and, ‘We take pride in delivering quality and value for money’.

“I just ask why the BBC thinks I am worth only one-sixth of the value of the work of a man for doing a very similar job.”

A panel of three judges learnt that both programmes were 15 minutes long, had a magazine format and only differed in that Newswatch restricted its discussion of viewers’ comments to news output, rather than general programming.

“They were minor differences and, more importantly, had no impact on the work that the two presenters did, or the skills and experience required to present the programmes,” Judge Harjit Grewal and the panel members Mr. S Godecharle and Mr. P Secher wrote.

The BBC’s argument, that there was more pressure on Mr. Vine because he was presenting a programme that well-known figures, such as Terry Wogan, had previously fronted, was rejected by the adjudicatory panel.

“We do not accept that Mr. Vine’s role had any additional responsibility,” the panel said. “It certainly was no greater than the responsibility of the presenter of Newswatch, having regard to the circumstances which led to the creation of Newswatch.”

Newswatch was launched in the wake of the Hutton inquiry, which investigated the circumstances surrounding the death of the UN weapons inspector David Kelly.

Following her victory, Ms. Ahmed said: “No woman wants to have to take action against their own employer. I’m now looking forward to continuing to do my job, to report on stories and not being one.’’

“We’re committed to equality and equal pay. Where we’ve found equal pay cases in the past, we’ve put them right. However, for us, this case was never about one person, but the way different types of programmes across the media industry attract different levels of pay.

“We have always believed that the pay of Samira and Jeremy Vine was not determined by their gender. Presenters – female as well as male – had always been paid more on Points of View than Newswatch.

“We’ll need to consider this judgment carefully. We know tribunals are never a pleasant experience for anyone involved. We want to work together with Samira to move on in a positive way.”

Carrie Gracie, former BBC China editor, who quit over unequal pay and is now a newsreader, tweeted that she “could not be more proud” of her colleague, adding: “I hope your victory gives courage to women everywhere to stand up for the value of their work.”

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