The BBC has finally apologized nearly two weeks after a white presenter, Fiona Lamdin said ‘n****r’ in a news report.
More than 18,000 people complained to the BBC after social affairs correspondent Fiona Lamdin said the highly-offensive term while covering a racist hit-and-run attack on a black NHS worker on July 29.
And now, 11 days after the initial report was made, the broadcaster’s director-general Lord Tony Hall said they ‘made a mistake’ and ‘should have taken a different approach’.
After the broadcaster initially defended the report, Lord Hall said in an email sent to all BBC staff: ‘This morning I brought together a group of BBC colleagues to discuss our news coverage of the recent shocking attack on an NHS worker. I wanted us to look at the issues raised by the reporting and the strength of feeling surrounding it.
‘We are proud of the BBC’s values of inclusion and respect, and have reflected long and hard on what people have had to say about the use of the n-word and all racist language both inside and outside the organisation.
‘It should be clear that the BBC’s intention was to highlight an alleged racist attack. This is important journalism which the BBC should be reporting on and we will continue to do so.
‘Yet despite these good intentions, I recognise that we have ended up creating distress amongst many people.
‘The BBC now accepts that we should have taken a different approach at the time of broadcast and we are very sorry for that. We will now be strengthening our guidance on offensive language across our output.
‘Every organisation should be able to acknowledge when it has made a mistake. We made one here. It is important for us to listen – and also to learn. And that is what we will continue to do.’
Ms Lamdin used the offensive term when covering the collision between a Honda Accord and a 21-year-old man in Bristol.
The car was said to have deliberately hit the victim as he left Southmead Hospital after a shift last Wednesday.