The BBC presenter Naga Munchetty has stated that her colleagues at the BBC attempt to be impartial at all times but that they are not “robots or idiots”. Ms Munchetty, who presents the BBC Breakfast show says, in her opinion, it is not her role to simply read the news but to inform viewers and give insight where it is possible.
Only last year, the 45-year-old was involved in a race row after she took exception with a comment from President Donald Trump and female politicians. Ms Munchetty was originally found to have breached the BBC’s editorial guidelines, but this ruling was eventually reversed.
At that time, the BBC’s director general Tony Hall said: “The Executive Complaints Unit ruling has sparked an important debate about racism and its interpretation. 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”.
Naga Munchetty has said : “I sit on that sofa as a woman, as a person of colour from an ethnic minority who is not a robot. We’re talking about Black Lives Matter now, we’re talking about George Floyd. We are not robots. We are not there to simply, blankly, read the news. That isn’t our job. We are judging what viewers need to know and we’re informing them as neutrally but with insight as much as we can. We are impartial but we’re not idiots”.
The BBC’s impartiality has been in the news in recent weeks. The BBC presenter Emily Maitlis was also accused of violating the BBC’s impartiality guidelines after she delivered a highly critical monologue about the Dominic Cummings lockdown controversy during an episode of Newsnight.
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Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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