2010: Weapons claims offend Bob Geldof, Ethiopia and Africa In March 2010,
Bob Geldof confronted
Andrew Marr on a BBC report claiming the Ethiopian government used money raised for the famine to pay for weapons. Geldof and the
Band Aid Trust reported the BBC to
Ofcom over the incident. Development agency
Christian Aid announced it too would make a complaint to the BBC Trust. The Ethiopian ambassador to the UK
Berhanu Kebede called it a "disgrace" and a "ridiculous report" and said the BBC had "destroyed its credibility in Africa" by making such claims. Geldof said it would be a "tragedy" if British people refused to donate money due to the BBC claims. The BBC initially announced that it was standing by its report and claimed to have evidence to back up its stance. The BBC was forced to broadcast a series of apologies in November 2010, after realising that it did not have enough evidence that any money was spent on weapons, basing much of the claims on a CIA report it had failed to question. It also apologised to Geldof for claiming that he had refused to respond to its fabricated story, with Geldof saying that much damage had been caused by the BBC to charity campaigns. Geldof also said "appalling damage" had been caused to the Band Aid Trust by the BBC.
2007–2011: Accusations of ageism and sexism The BBC was accused of ageism and sexism when news presenter
Moira Stuart (55) – the first black female television newsreader – was sacked in April 2007 after more than two decades of presenting, despite many male presenters in similar situations being allowed to continue in their jobs. In November 2008, four female
Countryfile presenters (
Michaela Strachan,
Charlotte Smith,
Miriam O'Reilly, and
Juliet Morris), all in their 40s and 50s, were dismissed from the show. The issue returned in July 2009, when former theatre choreographer
Arlene Phillips (66) was replaced on the
Strictly Come Dancing panel by
Alesha Dixon, a pop-star half her age. The male presenters on the show were
Len Goodman (65),
Bruno Tonioli (53),
Craig Revel Horwood (44), and
Bruce Forsyth (81).
2010–2011: QI and Tsutomu Yamaguchi In December 2010, the BBC broadcast an episode of its TV quiz show
QI in which panellists made jokes during a discussion about
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived both
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. She said that Britain, as a nuclear power, had no right to "look down" on her father. In January 2011, the BBC issued an apology for "any offence caused" to Japan by the incident, recognising "the sensitivity of the subject matter for Japanese viewers". In February 2011, the BBC blamed a "strength of feeling" in Japan following its atomic bomb joke broadcast for the cancellation of the filming of part of its
Planet Word documentary in Japan. The documentary was due to be presented by
Stephen Fry, the host of
QI.
2011: Top Gear comments on Mexico On 30 January 2011, the BBC broadcast an episode of its motoring TV show
Top Gear during which presenters referred to Mexicans as both "lazy" and "feckless" and Mexican food as "refried sick". The BBC then offered an apology, though it claimed there was no "vindictiveness" in the remarks and that they were just part of the stereotype-based comedy the organisation espoused, such as when it "make[s] jokes about the Italians being disorganised and over dramatic, the French being arrogant and the Germans being over-organised".
Trevor Phillips, head of the
Equality and Human Rights Commission, told
The Sunday Times that he was "not going to get hot under the collar about schoolboy provocation which frankly is organised so that we can get into a ruck and sell more DVDs for Jeremy Clarkson – Jeremy is rich enough".
Fake child labour footage in Bangalore The BBC's then nearly 60-year-old flagship weekly current affairs programme,
Panorama, had aired a documentary claiming that Bangalore-based suppliers of
Primark, a hugely successful retailer with 220 stores across Europe, were using child labour in their production in 2008. The claim has been found to be untrue, and the BBC apologised to Primark, admitting its mistake. Responding to Primark's protest, the BBC conceded in a 49-page report that footage of three boys engaged in completing garments for Primark was "more likely than not" to have been "not genuine" after a three-year internal inquiry.
UEFA Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine During the
UEFA Euro 2012 football tournament in Poland and Ukraine, the
BBC current affairs programme
Panorama aired
Euro 2012: Stadiums of Hate, which discussed racism in the sport. It included recent footage of supporters chanting various xenophobic slogans and displays of
white power symbols and banners in Poland, as well as Nazi salutes and the beating of a few South Asians in Ukraine. The documentary was widely commented in the British press, but later criticised for being one-sided, sensationalist, and unethical. The critics included other British media outlets, Polish anti-racism campaigners, and black and Jewish community leaders in Poland. Polish and Ukrainian politicians and journalists, British fans visiting Poland and Ukraine, and
Gary Lineker also voiced similar concerns about the broadcast. The executive director of the Jewish Community Centre of
Kraków,
Jonathan Ornstein, a Jewish source used in the film, said: "I am furious at the way the BBC has exploited me as a source. The organization used me and others to manipulate the serious subject of anti-Semitism for its own sensationalist agenda... the BBC knowingly cheated its own audience – the British people – by concocting a false horror story about Poland. In doing so, the BBC has spread fear, ignorance, prejudice and hatred. I am profoundly disturbed by this unethical form of journalism." Despite the BBC warning, Poland and Ukraine fans were not exhibiting racist attitudes. By the end of the tournament, however, four other nations were fined by UEFA for the racist activities of their fans: Germany, Spain,
Croatia, and Russia.
June 2012: Diamond Jubilee coverage The BBC's live television coverage of the
Queen's Diamond Jubilee River Thames Pageant on 3 June 2012 attracted some criticism in the media, and the corporation reportedly received over 4500 complaints from members of the public about the broadcast. Criticism centred on the "informal" style of presentation, which was perceived by some commentators to be too
lowbrow for a royal occasion. Some reviewers thought that the BBC presenters had concentrated too much on interviewing celebrities and that they were insufficiently prepared to add depth to the TV commentary. The actor and writer
Stephen Fry was of the opinion that the coverage was "mind-numbingly tedious", and BBC radio presenter
Sue MacGregor expressed disappointment that the coverage had failed to provide sufficient historical context to viewers.
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and composer
Gavin Greenaway publicly criticised the lack of television coverage given to the music which had been specially commissioned for the event. BBC creative director
Alan Yentob defended the BBC's coverage, citing high audience approval ratings, and
Director-General of the BBC Mark Thompson congratulated BBC staff for their work on the broadcast.
October 2012: Jimmy Savile abuse scandal In early October 2012, it was found that a
Newsnight investigation into allegations of
sexual abuse by the late Jimmy Savile had been shelved shortly before it was due to be broadcast. On 11 October,
George Entwistle, the
Director-General of the BBC, directed the head of BBC Scotland, Ken MacQuarrie, to commence an investigation into why this program was cancelled, He also announced an investigation into the BBC's child protection policy, and another into the prevalent culture within the department, particularly at the time of Savile's employment. On 23 October 2012, Entwistle appeared before the
Culture, Media and Sport Committee to answer questions following revelations that Savile had abused children on BBC property while working for the BBC. When asked by committee chairman
John Whittingdale if the BBC's reputation for trust and integrity was in jeopardy, Entwistle stated that allegations of child abuse at the BBC were a "very, very grave matter". A
Panorama investigation reported on what they considered to have been a paedophile ring that might have operated for at least 20 years, and possibly as long as 40 years, and BBC World Affairs editor
John Simpson described it as the BBC's "biggest crisis for over 50 years". On 12 November, the BBC announced that its director of news,
Helen Boaden, was "stepping aside", together with her deputy
Steve Mitchell, prior to the outcome of an investigation into the Savile child abuse claims. Nick Pollard's report into the shelving of a
Newsnight report on Savile in 2011 was published on 19 December 2012. It concluded that the decision to drop the original report was "flawed", but that it had not been done to protect programmes prepared as tributes to Savile. Pollard's report criticised George Entwistle for apparently failing to read emails warning him of Savile's "dark side", and stated that, after the allegations against Savile eventually became public, the BBC fell into a "level of chaos and confusion [that] was even greater than was apparent at the time". The BBC announced that
Newsnight editor
Peter Rippon and deputy editor Liz Gibbons would be replaced, and that deputy director of news Steve Mitchell had resigned, but that Helen Boaden would return to her role.
November 2012: Lord McAlpine falsely implicated in child abuse scandal In the aftermath of the Jimmy Savile scandal,
Newsnight investigated the
North Wales child abuse scandal. On 2 November 2012, a former resident of the Bryn Estyn children's home was reported on
Newsnight claiming that a prominent but unnamed former Conservative politician had sexually abused him during the 1970s. The rumour was spread by users of
Twitter and other social media which identified the politician. After
The Guardian reported a possible case of mistaken identity,
Lord McAlpine issued a strong denial that he was in any way involved, asserting that the allegations were wholly false and seriously defamatory. The accuser unreservedly apologised, admitting that, as soon as he saw a photograph of the individual, he realised he had been mistaken. The BBC also apologised. McAlpine began legal proceedings against the broadcasters who had made allegations, eventually settling for £185,000 from the BBC and £125,000 from
ITV. In a subsequent libel case,
Sally Bercow, wife of
John Bercow,
Speaker of the House of Commons, was prosecuted for libel regarding her Twitter posting which named McAlpine. Following a High Court verdict in favour of the plaintiff, where Bercow's comment was found to have been defamatory, she paid undisclosed damages to McAlpine. The decision to broadcast the
Newsnight report without contacting its subject led to further criticism of the BBC, and the resignation of its Director-General,
George Entwistle, on 10 November. It was later announced that Entwistle's severance package was in excess of £1.3 million.
Harriet Harman, Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, declared that Entwistle had been rewarded for 'failure'.
July 2013: Executive payoffs The large
severance payments given to departing BBC executives came to widespread media attention in 2013, when the
National Audit Office conducted an investigation into BBC senior management pay. The practice had been going on for a number of years. Senior executives whose payments were criticised included: chief operating officer
Caroline Thomson, who received a total of £680,400 on her departure in 2011; Deputy Director-General
Mark Byford, who also left the BBC in 2011, taking £949,000; CEO of
BBC Worldwide John Smith, who was paid a total of £1,031,000 in 2011 (he later returned £205,000);
George Entwistle, who left the Director-General job after only 54 days following the Savile crisis, and received a payment of £511,500; and
Roly Keating, the head of
BBC Archives, who received a £375,000 severance payment in 2012 (which he later repaid in full).
Margaret Hodge, chair of the
Public Accounts Committee, criticised the practice, calling it an "outrageous waste of licence fee payers' money." Following his appointment as Director General, Lord Hall introduced a £150,000 cap on severance payments.
Mark Thompson stated to the PAC that the payments had been fully approved by the BBC Trust.
November 2013: Generation War BBC's plans to broadcast the German
ZDF film
Generation War upset certain British residents of Polish origin, as the film had already been accused of slandering the Polish anti-Nazi underground
Armia Krajowa as anti-Semites, and of portraying false stereotypes of Poles and Germans during the period of occupation. In Germany, after ambassador Jerzy Marganski sent a letter of complaint to ZDF, the broadcaster provided corrective actions producing and broadcasting the film 'Kampf ums Überleben'.
August 2014: Coverage of Cliff Richard's property search On 14 August 2014, Sir
Cliff Richard's apartment in Berkshire was searched by
South Yorkshire Police in relation to an alleged historical sexual assault on a boy aged under 16. After police tipped off BBC journalist
Dan Johnson, BBC reporters were on the scene as police arrived, and a BBC helicopter covered the raid as it happened. Richard, who was in Portugal at the time, released a statement asserting that the allegation was "completely false" and complained that the press appeared to have been given advance notice of the search – whereas he had not been. The BBC's home affairs correspondent, Danny Shaw, stated that the media presence at Richard's home "was highly unusual – it appears to be a deliberate attempt by police to ensure maximum coverage", but added: "That's not illegal – but there are strict guidelines." By 19 August, the BBC was reported to have received up to 594 complaints regarding the coverage. Barrister and broadcaster
Geoffrey Robertson questioned the legality of the search and called for an independent inquiry into the police operation and the prior leaking to media of the property search. Officials from the BBC and South Yorkshire Police were called before the
Home Affairs Select Committee on 2 September. There, the chief constable of South Yorkshire Police accused the BBC of "extortion"; however, MPs dismissed this, with chairman
Keith Vaz stating that the BBC had "acted perfectly properly" in its coverage of the raid. After being told he would not be charged in June 2016, Richard said that he was considering suing the BBC. The BBC apologised for "distress" caused by its coverage but stood by the story, as it believed it was in the public interest. Richard sued the BBC and was awarded £210,000 in damages in July 2018, after London's High Court ruled that the broadcaster had infringed his right to privacy.
September 2014: Coverage of Scottish independence campaign Throughout the campaign preceding the
Scottish independence referendum held on 18 September 2014, there were accusations claiming that the BBC was neither neutral nor impartial. On 14 September 2014, thousands of protesters demonstrated outside BBC Scotland's headquarters in Glasgow, accusing the corporation and its political editor
Nick Robinson of broadcasting "lies" and of being "biased" against the
Yes Scotland campaign. The demonstrators demanded that Robinson be dismissed. The 'Yes' campaign was not itself involved in the demonstration. The protestors also later complained that coverage of the demonstration was not broadcast by the BBC.
Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister and leader of the
Scottish National Party, agreed with the view that the BBC was biased in favour of retaining the union. However, in an interview given after his clash with Robinson, he said he believed it was the fault of the BBC's London-based staff rather than
BBC Scotland itself. Professor John Robertson and a team at the
University of the West of Scotland monitored news broadcasts of the BBC and ITV until September 2013 for their study
Fairness in the First Year. The report found that the BBC was biased against the 'Yes' campaign in matters of airtime, sequencing of news items, prevalence of "bad news" items, and misleading presentation of sources as impartial. John Boothman, BBC Scotland's head of news and current affairs, rejected Robertson's accusation that the BBC had suppressed coverage of the report, while Ken MacQuarrie, director of BBC Scotland, rejected the report's allegations.
January 2015: The Secret World of Lewis Carroll and contributors The BBC commissioned documentary by Swan Films, "The Secret World of Lewis Carroll", aired on
BBC Two at 9 pm on 31 January 2015. 2015 itself marked the 150th Anniversary year of the publication of
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by
Lewis Carroll, which the documentary was commissioned to celebrate. A press release, issued a week prior to broadcast, stated: "To mark the 150th anniversary of its publication, this documentary explores the life and the imagination of the man who wrote it, the Reverend Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. Broadcaster and journalist
Martha Kearney delves into the biographies of both Carroll and of the young girl Alice Liddell, who inspired his most famous creation." Upon broadcast, an amount of airtime was given over to speculation over a nude photo of a young girl, which the documentary pushed as being by Carroll. The views given were by a forensic consultancy for image analysis and a photo conservationist. On 4 February, one of the contributors to the programme, biographer Jenny Woolf, claimed to not have been told the documentary would be featuring this photo, and that she did not have time to provide counterclaims. "They had people with no relevant expertise in photographic history or knowledge of Carroll's life, whose entirely personal hunches were offered airtime…. on the other hand they didn't tell their own relevant experts anything about the image, so their opposing views were not given airtime or discussion." Another contributor, Edward Wakeling, claimed in June 2015 that "[The BBC] broke their code of conduct. When they had a controversial subject like this they should have checked it out." Later that year, the documentary was reprimanded by the
BBC Trust for failing to give contributors notice of the changed content of the programme. "The image of the naked girl was a prominent feature of the programme and its discovery had meant that the nature of the programme had changed significantly from the original commission. … The Trustees recognised that the BBC had made some effort at a late stage to inform the contributors of the programme's changes … The programme should have gone back to the contributors at an earlier stage to inform them about the new image and to give them adequate time to consider whether they were content with their contributions."
January 2015: Tim Willcox antisemitism allegation While covering a unity rally after the
antisemitic massacre at a Hypercacher kosher supermarket in Paris and the
Charlie Hebdo terror attack, on 11 January 2015, the BBC's
Tim Willcox interrupted the daughter of a
Holocaust survivor discussing antisemitism in France by saying: "Many critics though, of Israel's policy would suggest that the Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well". After widespread criticism from the Jewish community for appearing to impute responsibility for Israel's actions to all Jews as a whole (in his use of the phrase "Jewish hands") and to justify the antisemitic massacre, Willcox apologised; Willcox had also received criticism months before for appearing to claim that many Jews disliked
Ed Miliband because of "mansion tax" he had proposed. The
BBC Trust ruled that Willcox's behaviour did not violate its editorial guidelines. It was later established that Clarkson, in a "fracas", had punched producer Oisín Tymon during an argument over catering arrangements at the
Top Gear production crew's hotel. A petition on
change.org to reinstate Clarkson gained over one million signatures before it was delivered to the BBC. On 25 March 2015, the BBC announced that Jeremy Clarkson's
Top Gear contract would not be renewed and that he would be dropped from the programme. After an internal investigation, the final decision was taken by
Tony Hall, director general of the BBC. This development led the other
Top Gear presenters,
Richard Hammond and
James May, to support Clarkson by quitting
Top Gear themselves (by allowing their BBC contracts to expire at the end of March without renewal).
January 2016: coordinated on-air resignation of Stephen Doughty In January 2016, the team behind the BBC's
Daily Politics show coordinated the on-air resignation of Labour politician
Stephen Doughty shortly before the start of Prime Minister's Questions. The show's output editor, Andrew Alexander, wrote a (later deleted) blog post for the BBC website explaining how this had come about. Alexander wrote: "We knew his resignation just before PMQs would be a dramatic moment with big political impact". The timing of the announcement ensured Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn was caught off guard. BBC News political editor
Laura Kuenssberg "sealed the deal" with Doughty before filming, even though it appeared to viewers that the resignation had been unplanned. A camera crew even filmed Doughty and Kuenssberg arriving at the studio together in advance of the announcement, which was to be televised later on news bulletins.
2017 and 2018: Gender pay gap controversy In July 2017, in response to a demand from the UK government as a condition of its new
royal charter, the BBC published a list of all employees who earned more than £150,000. Of the 96 BBC employees making over this threshold, 62 were men and 34 were women, and of the seven highest earners, all were men. The disclosure prompted criticism of the BBC over the
gender pay gap; other critics also criticised a lack of ethnic diversity among the highest-earning BBC personalities. Early in January 2018, it was announced that
Carrie Gracie, the BBC's China editor, had resigned from the role because of the salary gender disparity. A pre-broadcast conversation between
Today presenter
John Humphrys and
Jon Sopel, the BBC's North America editor, was leaked a few days later. Humphrys was recorded joking about the disparity. BBC management itself was said to be "deeply unimpressed" with Humphrys' comments. It became known on 26 January that some of the BBC's leading male presenters would take a pay cut. According to the BBC's media editor
Amol Rajan,
Huw Edwards,
Jeremy Vine, and John Humphrys were among those to have agreed to a salary reduction.
2019: Naga Munchetty accused of breaching BBC rules In September 2019, the BBC upheld a complaint against
Naga Munchetty for having breached BBC rules by giving an opinion on comments made by
Donald Trump. Munchetty was reprimanded by the BBC for breaching its charter. After representations in her favour from many sources, Munchetty was cleared by Lord Hall, who commented: "racism is racism and the BBC is not impartial on the topic".
2019: Removal of audience laughter from Question Time footage in a news report In a special
Question Time leaders' debate held on 22 November 2019 ahead of
that year's UK general election, the leader of the
Conservative Party and the
Prime Minister of the UK Boris Johnson was met with a question from an audience member about being honest in Johnson's position. The question was subsequently followed by laughter and applause from the rest of the audience, while Johnson struggled to answer. The footage from the moment was largely untouched (complete with sound) in a report broadcast during that night's
BBC News at Ten, but in another report about the same debate aired during the shorter
Saturday lunchtime bulletin the next day, the laughter had been removed from the footage. A user on Twitter raised attention to the difference. The BBC had initially defended the decision, claiming it was for timing reasons. However, the corporation later admitted that it was a "mistake". ==2020–present==