The presenter said she was glad the case had been won and thanked the NUJ, her lawyers and barrister outside the BBC in London. Judges condemned the BBC’s defence that Ahmed’s job as presenter of the audience feedback show Newswatch was significantly different to Jeremy Vine’s on Points of View and criticised the difference of pay between her £440-an-episode rate and the £3,000 Vine received per episode
Continue reading...Category Archives: BBC
Greta Thunberg changes Twitter name to Sharon after quiz show error
Actor Amanda Henderson answered ‘Sharon’ to Thunberg-related question on Celebrity Mastermind – and the teen activist loved it
Greta Thunberg has been mocked and called many names since becoming the world’s most famous climate activist.
Related: Greta Thunberg: 'I wouldn't have wasted my time' speaking to Trump
Continue reading...Greta Thunberg: climate activism has made her ‘very happy’, says father
Svante Thunberg says he was concerned about his daughter’s school strike but that her campaigning had helped her beat depression
Greta Thunberg’s father has opened up about how activism helped his daughter out of depression but still worries about how she will deal with the impact of her international fame.
Speaking to the BBC to mark his daughter’s guest-editing slot on the Today programme, Svante Thunberg revealed he thought it was a “bad idea” for Greta to stage the school strike that catapulted her into the public eye.
Continue reading...BBC put presenter on a plane to interview Greta Thunberg
Sarah Sands, editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, admits it ‘felt awkward’
Putting a presenter on a flight to Sweden to meet climate activist Greta Thunberg “felt awkward”, the editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme has admitted.
The 16-year-old campaigner, who was a guest editor on a special edition of the show, avoids air travel because of its environmental impact.
Continue reading...Alex Duval Smith obituary
Foreign correspondent with a knowledge and love of Africa who worked for the Guardian, the Independent and the BBC
The journalist Alex Duval Smith, who has died of cancer aged 55, was a free spirit with a remarkable gift for connecting with others across social, language or cultural barriers.
For more than two decades she worked as a reporter and correspondent in European and African countries, for the Guardian, the Independent, the Observer, the BBC, Radio France International and France 24. She had a deep knowledge of and love for Africa and was a citizen of the world – with two nationalities and three languages; she had lived in almost a dozen countries.
Continue reading...Emily Maitlis: ‘Prince Andrew was unleashed. He wanted to tell me everything’
Newsnight was granted a rare audience with the royal ... and after a decade of silence, he was unstoppable. Its presenter shares the secrets of the interview of the century
Series 3, episode 4: The Crown. A BBC van pulls up at Buckingham Palace to record a royal documentary.
As in life, so with television: timing is everything. Had The Crown aired its new series one week earlier … Had the fictional Queen been spotted squirming at the TV crews in her midst … Had the distant memories of a now-banned palace interview been fresher in our minds … It is entirely possible, and more than probable, that the Prince Andrew interview would never have happened.
Continue reading...Cabinet mini-reshuffle under way as Johnson keeps Nicky Morgan as culture secretary – live news
Simon Hart named new Welsh secretary as prime minister announces that Morgan – who stood down as MP – will get life peerage
- Angela Rayner could run for deputy, say Labour sources
- Who are the Conservatives’ most controversial new MPs?
- Vilification of Corbyn in broadcast media ‘fuelled defeat’ – shadow minister
Here’s a host more middle and junior-ranking ministerial appointments just announced by No 10:
A mooted plan to merge the department for international development (DfID) and the foreign office (FCO) risks allowing British aid money to be spent on “UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives”, rather than on helping the world’s poorest people, more than 100 charities warn.
Related: Johnson to tell new Tory MPs they must repay public’s trust
Merging DfID with the FCO would risk dismantling the UK’s leadership on international development and humanitarian aid. It suggests we are turning our backs on the world’s poorest people, as well as some of the greatest global challenges of our time: extreme poverty, climate change and conflict. UK aid risks becoming a vehicle for UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives, when it first and foremost should be invested to alleviate poverty.
By far the best way to ensure that aid continues to deliver for those who need it the most is by retaining DfID as a separate Whitehall department, with a secretary of state for international development, and by pledging to keep both independent aid scrutiny bodies: the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and the International Development Select Committee.
Continue reading...‘Help me fight this fight’: Virginia Giuffre in plea to public over Prince Andrew scandal
American tells BBC she was told to have sex with royal by Jeffrey Epstein’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell
A beleaguered Prince Andrew faced fresh embarrassment after his accuser Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was trafficked as a teenager to have sex with him, appeared on television to implore the British public to “not accept this as being OK”.
In her first UK broadcast interview, Giuffre repeated allegations she had sex with the prince when she was aged 17 on the instructions of Ghislaine Maxwell, a socialite and close friend of the US financier and sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in August.
Continue reading...BBC admits ‘mistake’ in editing out laughter at Johnson in TV debate
The broadcaster cut out laughter during leaders’ debate on Question Time in later news bulletin clip
The BBC has claimed it made a “mistake” in editing a clip where it cut out an audience laughing at Boris Johnson, insisting the decision was made due to time constraints rather than political bias.
In the Question Time leaders’ debate special, broadcast on BBC One on Friday night, an audience member asked the prime minister: “How important is it for someone in your position of power to always tell the truth?”
Continue reading...Prince Andrew’s private secretary steps down after Newsnight interview
Amanda Thirsk will run mentoring initiative, as Barclays becomes latest organisation to sever ties with the prince
Barclays has become the latest among a growing number of organisations to sever ties with Prince Andrew, as it emerged that the aide who orchestrated the beleaguered royal’s disastrous interview about his links to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is no longer his private secretary.
Amanda Thirsk, who was said to have played a key role in persuading him to agree to the BBC interview, has reportedly moved on to run his business mentoring initiative, Pitch@Palace.
Continue reading...Prince Andrew: Calls for royal to say sorry and speak to FBI
Lawyers for Epstein’s victims say they were ‘almost completely ignored’ in interview
Prince Andrew is facing a transatlantic backlash over his extraordinary defence of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after lawyers who represent 10 of the billionaire predator’s victims branded the royal unrepentant and implausible and demanded that he speak to the FBI.
After the royal’s defiant Newsnight interview on Saturday triggered a disbelieving reaction from the public and the media, the prince was under growing pressure from critics in the UK and US on Sunday who demanded an apology for his conduct and said that his defence of his actions was simply not credible.
Continue reading...‘He was incredibly gracious after’: Newsnight team say Andrew was pleased with interview
Appearance was secured after six months of negotiations and royal’s team referred decision upwards
As television interviews go, it was one of the most excruciating – and most sought-after – in British history. But when Prince Andrew’s painstakingly negotiated head-to-head with Emily Maitlis in Buckingham Palace finished, the royal appeared oblivious to the damage that had been done. In fact, he was so pleased with how things had gone that he gave the Newsnight team a tour of the palace afterwards.
On Sunday, as the prince’s team picked up the pieces from an interview widely perceived to have been disastrous for his reputation, the remarkable story of how it came about emerged – from the departure of a key aide to drawn-out discussions and a last-minute message to the Queen.
Continue reading...Prince Andrew on friendship with Jeffrey Epstein: I let royals down
Prince speaks publicly for first time about paedophile financier found dead in prison
Prince Andrew has said that he failed to uphold the standards of the royal family when he visited Jeffrey Epstein after the paedophile’s release from prison, admitting: “I let the side down, simple as that.”
The prince made the statement in an interview with the BBC’s Newsnight programme, the first time he has spoken publicly about his friendship with Epstein, to be broadcast on Saturday night.
Continue reading...Tazeen Ahmad: award-winning journalist and broadcaster dies
Family and friends recall ‘her powerful ability to turn around people’s lives for the better’
The award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tazeen Ahmad has died, her family have said. Ahmad was praised for her work in shining a light on important stories with “care, sympathy and integrity” across her extensive career.
She worked for the BBC and was part of the Channel 4 Dispatches team that won an RTS television journalism award and was nominated for a current affairs TV Bafta for the documentary The Hunt for Britain’s Sex Gangs.
Continue reading...Little Britain radio review: neutered by BBC impartiality rules
The delay to Brexit plus strict pre-election guidelines left few chances for trenchant jokes in David Walliams and Matt Lucas’s sketch show
In the many risk assessments of the possible consequences of Brexit happening on Halloween – lorry queues, drug shortages, street violence – scant attention was paid to a significant victim of its not happening: broadcasting specials timed to coincide with departure from the EU being forced to go out, even though the UK actually hadn’t.
The special Brexit edition of Little Britain, bringing David Walliams and Matt Lucas’s sketch show back to Radio 4, where it started in 2000, was at a double disadvantage. Having been denied its calendar reason for being, it also now found itself broadcast in the run-up to a general election, when the BBC’s already contorted attempts at political impartiality become even stricter.
Continue reading...IRA ‘planned to knock out electricity in south-east England’
Former gun runner claims republicans plotted to bomb London power supply in 1990s
The IRA planned to attack power stations in south-east England in the final years of its terror bombing campaign, a former member has claimed.
The plan is alleged to have been made in the mid-1990s, shortly before the Belfast Agreement peace accord.
Continue reading...‘Toxic’ Telegraph made me feel ‘nauseous’, says Graham Norton
BBC chat show presenter explains why he stopped writing advice column
Graham Norton has said he stopped writing for the Daily Telegraph because the newspaper’s recent “toxic” political stances increasingly made him feel “nauseous”.
The BBC One chat show presenter wrote the newspaper’s advice column for 12 years before stepping down without explanation at the end of 2018. Norton has now said he decided to leave the outlet after it defended the likes of US supreme court then-nominee Brett Kavanaugh and published articles by future prime minister Boris Johnson containing falsehoods.
Continue reading...Naga Munchetty: BBC reverses decision to censure presenter
Corporation director general Tony Hall emails staff to say he is overturning ruling over impartiality guidelines
The BBC has reversed its decision to discipline Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty for breaking impartiality guidelines with her comments about the US president following enormous internal and external anger about the ruling.
The U-turn came after the Guardian published leaked internal correspondence casting doubts on the public claims made by senior BBC executives about the nature of the single viewer complaint that led to the ruling.
Continue reading...Prominent Britons of colour condemn BBC over Naga Munchetty complaint
Corporation accused of racial discrimination after presenter reprimanded for Trump remarks
More than 40 prominent broadcasters, celebrities and actors of colour have condemned the BBC, demanding it reconsider a decision partially upholding a complaint against the presenter Naga Munchetty, calling it “deeply flawed, illegal and contrary to the spirit and purpose of public broadcasting”.
In a letter published in the Guardian, the actors Lenny Henry, Adrian Lester and David Harewood, and presenters Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Gillian Joseph are among signatories describing the decision as “racially discriminatory treatment”.
Continue reading...Johnson offers words of praise to Egypt’s leader despite repression
Banning of BBC and crackdown on protests seemingly not on agenda at PM’s talks with Sisi
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, lavished praise on Egypt at a bilateral meeting with its president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, in New York, hours before the UK hosted a global media freedom conference with Amal Clooney, the UK’s special envoy on media freedom.
Sisi has just instigated a fresh massive crackdown on journalists following the outbreak of protests against corruption in Egypt.
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