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Ofcom mulls investigation of BBC over Trump comments


The UK media regulator has been drawn into a growing row over the BBC’s decision to reprimand TV presenter Naga Munchetty over comments about President Donald Trump.

Ofcom on Friday said it was assessing a BBC Breakfast show that aired in July, after a complaint filed by Labour MP Chi Onwurah stating the public broadcaster had “censored” Ms Munchetty for trying to follow the regulator’s rules.

“We have recently received complaints relating to this programme and we are assessing the content against our own broadcasting rules,” said a spokesperson for the regulator.

The BBC’s complaints unit on Wednesday found that Ms Munchetty had breached editorial guidelines on impartiality during an on-air discussion of a statement by the US president that four Democratic congresswomen should “go back to the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”.

According to the broadcaster, Ms Munchetty and her co-host Dan Walker had not been wrong to acknowledge that Mr Trump’s statement about the women was racist but she had broken rules on impartiality when she commented “critically on the possible motive for, and potential consequences of, the president’s words”.

Mr Walker, who said “it feels like” the US president’s comments had been made to attract attention”, was not investigated as the complainant had only targeted Ms Munchetty, who had agreed with Mr Walker before adding: “Anyway, I’m not here to give my opinion.”

In her letter to Ofcom, Ms Onwurah argued the regulator’s broadcasting rules forbid “material which contains abusive or derogatory treatment of individuals or groups [ . . .] except where it is justified by context” such as “sufficient challenge”.

“Ms Munchetty was providing challenge. It appears to me that the BBC are censoring her for following the requirements of the code,” Ms Onwurah said.

The broadcaster has faced a backlash over its decision to censure Ms Munchetty. A group of nearly 50 British black broadcasters and journalists, including journalist Afua Hirsch and comedian Lenny Henry, on Friday published an open letter to the BBC, urging it to reconsider the ruling.

The signatories demanded that the BBC “revisits and takes seriously overturning its decision” and that management issue “their support for journalists and acknowledge there can be no expectation of ‘impartiality’ over expressions and experiences of racism”.

“For communities and individuals who experience racist abuse — including Munchetty — being expected to treat racist ideas as potentially valid has devastating and maybe illegal consequences for our dignity and ability to work in a professional environment,” the signatories said, arguing the decision could worsen the lack of diversity in British media.

“The BBC will have to do a reset on how it deals with race because they are out of touch,” said cosignatory Pat Younge, managing director of production company Sugar Films, who was until recently chief creative officer of what is now BBC Studios.

The BBC said the open letter had been based on a “misunderstanding” of the ruling.

“The Editorial Complaints Unit’s ruling is clear that Naga Munchetty was perfectly entitled to give a personal response to the phrase ‘go back to your own country’,” the public service broadcaster said.

“However, our editorial guidelines do not allow for journalists to then give their opinions about the individual making the remarks or their motives for doing so [..] Those judgments are for the audience to make.”



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