BBC DG overturns ECU Naga Munchetty ruling

Director-General Tony Hall today overturned a ruling by the corporation’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU). The intervention came after a complaint made after a discussion between BBC breakfast presenters Dan Walker and Naga Munchetty. It was reported that Naga breached BBC guidelines by suggesting President Donald Trump was guilty of racism, the corporation’s complaints unit has decided.

She expressed concern on the show on July 19, 2019, after the US President said four congresswoman should “go back” to the “places from which they came.”

Seeming to go off script, she dwelled upon her own experiences of being told go home in the UK, saying the comments made her "furious".

Naga said: "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.”

The four congresswomen, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, were told by the president that they should “go back and help fix the totally broken places from which they came”.

The four women are US citizens and three of them were born and raised in the US.

The BBC Executive Complaints Unit ruled that Naga Munchetty did break the rules.

BBC Executive Complaints Unit ruling

A BBC spokesperson said: “President Trump’s comments that a number of female Democrat members of Congress should ‘go back’ to the ‘totally broken and crime infested places from which they came’ were widely condemned as racist, and we reported on this extensively.

“The BBC’s editorial guidelines do require due impartiality, but the Editorial Complaints Unit’s ruling is clear that Naga Munchetty was perfectly entitled to give a personal response to the phrase ‘go back to your own country’. She understandably feels strongly on this issue, and there was nothing wrong with her talking about her own experiences of racism.

“However, our editorial guidelines do not allow for journalists to then give their opinions about the individual making the remarks or their motives for doing so - in this case President Trump - and it was for this reason that the complaint was partially upheld. Those judgements are for the audience to make.”

This led to a public outcry, with Lenny Henry among 150 BAME TV stars who wrote to the BBC DG calling the ECU decision “deeply flawed and asking him to personally intervene in the situation.

BBC Director-General's email

In an email sent to BBC staff on 30th September 2019 in relation to the ruling on BBC Breakfast Director-General Tony Hall wrote:

“Dear All,

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.

Many of you asked that I personally review the decision of the ECU. I have done so. I have looked carefully at all the arguments that have been made and assessed all of the materials. I have also examined the complaint itself. It was only ever in a limited way that there was found to be a breach of our guidelines. These are often finely balanced and difficult judgements.

But, in this instance, I don’t think Naga’s words were sufficient to merit a partial uphold of the complaint around the comments she made. There was never any sanction against Naga and I hope this step makes that absolutely clear. She is an exceptional journalist and presenter and I am proud that she works for the BBC.

I have asked the editorial and leadership teams to discuss how we manage live exchanges on air around these topics in the future. Our impartiality is fundamental to our journalism and is what our audiences expect of us.

Best wishes,
Tony Hall
Director-General”