8 hours ago
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Emma SaundersCulture reporter
The BBC has upheld 20 impartiality complaints over the way presenter Martine Croxall altered a script she was reading live on the BBC News Channel, which referred to "pregnant people" earlier this year.
Croxall was introducing an interview about research on groups most at risk during UK heatwaves, which quoted a release from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
The presenter changed her script to instead say "women", and the BBC's Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) said it considered her facial expression as she said this to express a "controversial view about trans people".
The presenter said: "Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, says that the aged, pregnant people … women … and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions."
The ECU said it considered Croxall's facial expression laid it open to the interpretation that it "indicated a particular viewpoint in the controversies currently surrounding trans ideology."
Following her introduction, Dr Mistry, an assistant professor at the LSHTM, spoke about the story, and referred to "pregnant women."
The ECU said Croxall's facial expression after she said "pregnant people" had been "variously interpreted by complainants as showing disgust, ridicule, contempt or exasperation."
It added that "congratulatory messages Ms Croxall later received on social media, together with the critical views expressed in the complaints to the BBC and elsewhere, tended to confirm that the impression of her having expressed a personal view was widely shared across the spectrum of opinion on the issue".
Harry Potter author JK Rowling was among those who praised Croxall at the time.
The ECU noted that "Ms Croxall was reacting to scripting, which somewhat clumsily incorporated phrases from the press release accompanying the research, including 'the aged', which is not the BBC style, and 'pregnant people', which did not match what Dr Mistry said in the clip which followed".
It explained that "giving the strong impression of expressing a personal view on a controversial matter, even if inadvertently, falls short of the BBC's expectations of its presenters and journalists in relation to impartiality, the ECU upheld the complaints".
The finding was reported to management of BBC News and discussed with Ms Croxall and the editorial team concerned.
In 2022, the BBC said comments by Croxall made during a News Channel newspaper review, soon after Boris Johnson said he would not return to stand as Tory leader, breached its rules on impartiality.
Her "remarks and reactions... caused a significant risk the audience could believe opinions were being expressed on the Conservative leadership contest," the BBC said.
