Category Archives: BBC

BBC World Service retreat ‘helping Russia and China push propaganda’

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BBC director-general Tim Davie to warn world facing ‘all-out assault on truth’ as state-funded media operators broadcast unchallenged

The BBC director-general will warn that the retreat of its World Service because of funding cuts has helped Russia and China broadcast “unchallenged propaganda”.

In a speech at the Future Resilience Forum, a non-partisan meeting in London attended by international political figures, Tim Davie will discuss the global importance of the BBC World Service, which operates across more than 40 languages.

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BBC cancels Boris Johnson interview after Laura Kuenssberg message gaffe

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Briefing notes mistakenly being sent to ex-PM meant it was ‘not right for the interview to go ahead’, says presenter

The BBC has cancelled a prime-time interview with Boris Johnson after the presenter Laura Kuenssberg accidentally sent the former prime minister her briefing notes.

Kuenssberg said she sent Johnson the notes “in a message meant for my team”. The former BBC political editor said it was “embarrassing and disappointing”, adding the error meant it was “not right for the interview to go ahead”.

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Peter Jay, journalist and diplomat, dies aged 87

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Tributes paid to one of the UK’s foremost economics commentators who was also ambassador to Washington

Peter Jay, the former BBC economics journalist and diplomat, has died at the age of 87, his family has announced.

Colleagues in the political and media world paid tributes after he died “peacefully at home” on Sunday. Jay was one of the country’s foremost economics commentators of his time, spending time as the economics editor for the BBC and the Times.

Additional reporting by PA Media

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‘I constantly was saying no’: ex-Abercrombie & Fitch boss accused of abuse at global sex events

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Mike Jeffries, now 80, has been accused of exploiting young men for sex in cities around the world from 2009-15

The former chief executive of the American fashion brand Abercrombie & Fitch faces new allegations this weekend of exploitation and abuse at sex events held around the world.

One witness said he attended a sex event in Spain with the former fashion boss Mike Jeffries and his British partner Matthew Smith, believing it was going to be a photoshoot, the BBC reported. Young men were injected with liquid Viagra at other events, according to witnesses.

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BBC promises ‘innovative’ return for Casualty in Christmas special

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Broadcaster says episode will ‘celebrate gift of giving’ after news revealed in a cryptic teaser trailer for medical drama

Casualty is to return to TV screens for an “innovative” Christmas special, the BBC has revealed. The news was announced in a cryptic teaser trailer, which followed Saturday’s season finale on BBC One.

The BBC says the Christmas special will “celebrate the gift of giving” and be told in an “innovative, format-breaking way”. A teaser image for the trailer showed a hospital ward covered in snow, with a fluorescent jacket on the ground.

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Aid agency insiders claim BBC ‘blocking’ Gaza humanitarian appeal

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Disasters Emergency Committee sources say BBC fears backlash from those supportive of Israel’s war with Hamas

The launch of a major humanitarian appeal for Gaza by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is being delayed by the BBC, it has emerged.

The corporation said the appeal did not meet all the established criteria for a national appeal, but the possibility of broadcasting an appeal was “under review”. Other channels have agreed to broadcast an appeal.

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Killer asks to return to UK to help find victim’s body 55 years after murder

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Nizamodeen Hosein was deported following 20 years in prison for 1969 murder of Muriel McKay

The chilling words of a convicted murderer will soon be heard, peeling back the decades to a winter’s night in 1969, in a revelatory new recorded interview with one of the two brothers who kidnapped and killed Muriel McKay. “Maybe the only solution is to get on the spot. To be there again, I’ll have to retrace my steps,” Nizamodeen Hosein will say.

The notorious killer at the centre of a police hunt that dominated the news 55 years ago has suggested that a trip back from Trinidad and Tobago, where he was deported in 1990 after 20 years in prison, might jog his fading memory about the location of the body of the 55-year-old woman he abducted from her Wimbledon home in an extraordinary case of misidentification.

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Israel spokesperson accuses BBC’s Mishal Husain of pro-Palestinian bias

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Broadcaster defends Radio 4 presenter’s ‘legitimate’ questions to David Mencer, who claimed she was parroting ‘terrorist organisations’

The BBC has defended Mishal Husain, a presenter on its Radio 4 Today programme, after she was accused by an Israeli government spokesperson live on air of “blindly repeating what terrorist organisations … feed you”.

In a tetchy interview on Monday’s programme, David Mencer, said Husain warranted the “pro-Palestinian reporter of the year award”.

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Doctor warned Valdo Calocane could kill, three years before Nottingham stabbings

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Family share medical records of Calocane’s mental illness with BBC that they say show missed opportunities to prevent attacks

A doctor warned that Valdo Calocane’s mental illness was so severe he could kill someone, three years before he stabbed three people to death in Nottingham, his medical records reveal.

Calocane’s family, who were shown the records only after he was sentenced to indefinite detention in a high-security hospital for the attacks, have criticised the missed opportunities they believe could have prevented the killings.

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BBC asks disgraced presenter Huw Edwards to return £200,000 of salary

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Corporation says journalist brought BBC ‘into disrepute’ and requests return of money paid since his arrest

The BBC has asked Huw Edwards to return £200,000 that he was paid following his arrest in November last year, after the disgraced presenter admitted making indecent images of children.

A statement from the corporation said Edwards, who announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II, had “undermined trust in the BBC and brought us into disrepute” and they wanted him to repay his salary.

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Plaque honouring Huw Edwards removed from Cardiff Castle

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Mural featuring disgraced presenter also painted over in his home village of Llangennech, Carmarthenshire

A plaque honouring Huw Edwards at Cardiff Castle has been removed after the disgraced presenter pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children.

Cardiff council took away the wall-mounted plaque after Edwards admitted to having 41 indecent images of children, sent to him by another man on WhatsApp.

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BBC wipes Huw Edwards from archive but role in state occasions presents challenge

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Broadcaster removes image and voice from content as Welsh organisations erase disgraced presenter from websites

Huw Edwards’s image and voice are being urgently removed from hours of BBC archive footage, starting with family and entertainment content on iPlayer, the Observer has learned.

Photographs of the disgraced Welsh television news anchor are also being removed by prominent institutions and charities, and from websites throughout Wales, where he was a national figurehead.

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‘Reputational car crash’: insiders rue BBC’s handling of Huw Edwards

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Staff feel disillusioned with senior management and bitter that his pay had become an unstoppable snowball

For Huw Edwards, once the most trusted newsreader in Britain, now a convicted user of images of the most serious child sexual abuse, the disgrace is total – and nowhere more than in his home country of Wales.

Hours after he pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children as young as seven, a plaque on a building at Cardiff castle commemorating its unveiling by Edwards had already been wrenched off; his voice was also deleted from its guide. He is likely to be stripped of honorary titles at Bangor and Cardiff universities. A mural of the newsreader’s face in his home village of Llangennech, Carmarthenshire has already been painted over by the artist.

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Fresh crisis at ‘toxic’ Strictly as ex-staff claim they faced sexualised comments and cruelty

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Production workers at Strictly Come Dancing allege BBC refused to take their complaints seriously

Production staff who formerly worked on Strictly Come Dancing have complained of a toxic work culture and accused the BBC of failing to take their complaints seriously, in a fresh blow to the corporation’s primetime show, the Observer can reveal.

One former staff member alleged they had been subjected to sexist and sexualised comments, including intrusive questions about their sex life, while another claimed they witnessed “talented co-workers treated with cruelty”.

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Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw to star in Doctor Who spin-off

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Writer Russell T Davies says drama The War Between the Land and the Sea ‘will shake the Whoniverse to its foundations’

Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are to star in a Doctor Who spin-off called The War Between the Land and the Sea, it has been announced.

They will lead the cast alongside Jemma Redgrave and Alexander Devrient in the series, which was created by Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies. He has co-written the series with Pete McTighe, who has also worked on Doctor Who.

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Craig Revel Horwood says Strictly Come Dancing allegations are ‘shock’

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Accusations of abusive behaviour in rehearsal rooms ‘complete news’ to judge of the dance show

Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood has said allegations of abusive behaviour to past participants on the show have come as a “shock” to him.

Last weekend professional dancer Graziano Di Prima said he was leaving the BBC show after claims about his treatment of reality star Zara McDermott when they competed together last year.

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Strictly dancer admits kicking his celebrity partner during rehearsals

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Spokesperson for Graziano Di Prima says he accepts he ‘crossed the line’ in the incident with Zara McDermott

Graziano Di Prima was removed from Strictly Come Dancing after he kicked his celebrity partner Zara McDermott during rehearsals, his spokesperson has said.

Di Prima, who joined the Strictly lineup in 2018, announced last weekend he was leaving the programme.

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Iranian TV presenter stabbed in London moves abroad for safety

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Exclusive: Pouria Zeraati ‘no longer felt safe in UK’ as Tehran regime steps up threats and attacks on critics in exile

An Iranian television presenter, who was attacked in London by men believed to be acting for the Tehran regime, has moved abroad, saying that he no longer felt safe in the UK.

Pouria Zeraati said the UK’s approach to the threat posed by Iran on British soil could not guarantee his safety.

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Billie Eilish latest star to read CBeebies bedtime story

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Oscar-winning singer chooses book by Oliver Jeffers that highlights importance of protecting nature

Billie Eilish has become the latest star to read a CBeebies bedtime story, having chosen a book that teaches children about interacting with nature.

The Oscar-winning singer of What Was I Made For? and Birds of a Feather read This Moose Belongs to Me by the author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers.

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