- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Keerthi Mohan
THE BBC on Monday (30) overturned a ruling against Naga Munchetty after her she was reprimanded for calling US president Donald Trump racist.
Tony Hall, the BBC’s director general, overturned the initial ruling after “personally” reviewing the evidence.
In a letter sent to BBC employees, he wrote: “Racism is racism and the BBC is not impartial on the topic. There was never a finding against Naga for what she said about the President’s tweet.
“I don’t think Naga’s words were sufficient to merit a partial uphold of the complaint around the comments she made.
“There was never any sanction against Naga and I hope this step makes that absolutely clear. She is an exceptional journalist and presenter and I am proud that she works for the BBC.
“I have asked the editorial and leadership teams to discuss how we manage live exchanges on air around these topics in the future.”
Munchetty was disciplined following a conversation on air in July where she criticised Trump for asking female members of the Democratic Party to go back to their own countries.
At the time, Munchetty said: “Every time I have been told, as a woman of colour, to go back to where I came from, that was embedded in racism.
“Now, I’m not accusing anyone of anything here, but you know what certain phrases mean.”
The BBC’s original ruling stated that Munchetty’s comments “went beyond what the guidelines allow for.” This gave rise to a petition to overturn the ruling, and received more than 35,000 signatures.
In an open letter to the BBC, several stars, including Sir Lenny Henry, Gina Yashere and Adrian Lester told the broadcaster that its position in rebuking Munchetty was deeply flawed.
The controversy deepened on Monday after it was revealed that the original complaint also mentioned Munchetty’s co-host Dan Walker. But only the 44-year-old was disciplined.
