The BBC has upheld 20 impartiality complaints about 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 presented an interview about research into higher risk groups during heatwaves in the UK, which cited a statement from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
The presenter changed her script to say “women”, and the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) said it considered her facial expression to express a “controversial view about trans people”.
The presenter said: “Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, says the elderly, pregnant people… women… and those with pre-existing health problems should take precautions.”
The ECU said it considered Croxall’s facial expression left open the interpretation that it “indicated a particular point of view in the controversies currently surrounding trans ideology”.
After her presentation, Dr. Mistry, assistant professor at LSHTM, spoke about the story and referred to “pregnant women.”
The ECU said Croxall’s facial expression after saying “pregnant people” had been “variously interpreted by the complainants as showing disgust, ridicule, contempt or exasperation”.
He added: “The congratulatory messages Ms Croxall later received on social media, together with the critical views expressed in complaints to the BBC and elsewhere, tended to confirm that the impression that she had expressed a personal opinion 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 the script, which somewhat clumsily incorporated phrases from the press release accompanying the investigation, including ‘the elderly’, which is not the BBC style, and ‘pregnant people’, which did not match what Dr Mistry said in the clip that followed.”
He explained that “by giving the strong impression of expressing a personal opinion on a controversial matter, even if unintentionally, does not meet the BBC’s expectations of its presenters and journalists in matters of impartiality, the ECU upheld the complaints.”
The finding was reported to BBC News management and discussed with Ms Croxall and the editorial team concerned.
In 2022, the BBC said that Croxall’s comments made during a News Channel newspaper review, shortly after Boris Johnson said he would not be Conservative leader again, breached its rules on impartiality.
His “comments and reactions…raised a significant risk that the audience might believe that opinions were being expressed about the Conservative leadership contest,” the BBC said.
