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BBC urged to reconsider Naga Munchetty complaint decision
Image captionMore than 40 presenters, actors and broadcasters have signed an open letter calling on the BBC to overturn its decision to uphold a complaint against Breakfast host Naga Munchetty.It objects to the BBC ruling about remarks Munchetty made about US President Donald Trump in July.
Munchetty was found to have breached guidelines by criticising President Donald Trump after he said four female politicians should"go back" to"places from which they came". But she is not facing any disciplinary action or reprimand. Writer Afua Hirsch, who helped organise the letter, told BBC Radio 4 the decision would have"a chilling effect on other broadcasters of colour".This exchange, broadcast on 17 July, sparked the complaint The signatories, who also include actor David Harewood, Sky journalist Gillian Joseph, journalist Marcus Ryder and film-maker Asif Kapadia, demand that the BBC"revisits and takes seriously overturning its decision". It calls for BBC management to"issue their support for journalists and acknowledge there can be no expectation of 'impartiality' over expressions and experiences of racism".It also wants the bodies that oversee complaints about broadcasting, including the BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit and Ofcom, to"address their own levels of diversity and increase transparency as to how they reach their decisions".She told the Today programme:"As a matter of principle, it [the BBC decision] suggests that the racist views she was commenting on are opinions that should be treated impartially, and that really legitimises racism and suggests it's something we should debate. "That's clearly wrong and it's widely accepted that racism is not a legitimate opinion, so I think the BBC has got confused by treating it that way." She added that the decision was"abhorrent", and that it had"a highly disproportionate and unacceptable impact on people of colour in broadcasting, because it distributes the labour of having to challenge racism unequally".Munchetty and BBC Breakfast co-presenter Dan Walker had the exchange after an interview with a supporter of Mr Trump on 17 July. DW: It's the president. That was the most telling quote for me last night. I can't remember who said it, but she said, 'I've been told to go home many times to go back to where I've come from in my life, but never by the man sitting in the Oval Office'. NM: 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.DW: You're sitting here not giving an opinion, but how do you feel as someone when you've been told that before, and when you hear that from him? NM: Furious. Absolutely furious. And I imagine a lot of people in this country will be feeling absolutely furious that a man in that position feels it's OK to skirt the lines with using language like that.DM: It feels like a thought-out strategy to strengthen his position. NM: And it is not enough to do it just to get attention. He's in a responsible position. Anyway I'm not here to give my opinion.David Jordan, the BBC's head of editorial standards, said Munchetty was not found in breach for"calling out racist comments, which is perfectly acceptable where things are clearly framed in racist language". The"issue" on which the BBC finding was made was"not her responding to that clearly racist comment, or responding personally to what it's like as a person of colour to have a remark of that nature directed against yourself", he explained. He said the issue arose"when she went on further to discuss President Trump himself, what his motivations were for that, and that breached our impartiality requirements".
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