Naga Munchetty breached BBC guidelines by criticising Donald Trump for perceived “racism”, the corporation’s complaints unit has ruled.
The BBC Breakfast host condemned comments made by the president about political rivals, after he told female Democrats to “go back” to their own counties.
Munchetty has been rebuked by the BBC for branding these comments as racist.
The presenter earned plaudits for her decision to speak about her struggles and share her experiences of being told herself to “go back to your own country”.
READ MORE: Democrats launch formal Trump impeachment inquiry
Speaking on BBC Breakfast on July 17, in the aftermath of Mr Trump’s online remarks, she 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.”
Mr Trump had shared posted several messages on Twitter in which he made references to politicians Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley.
They are US citizens and three were born in America.
Munchetty’s assertion that Mr Trump’s comments were embedded in racism went beyond what the BBC allows, and a complaint made about the presenter’s comments was upheld by the executive complaints unit (ECU) of the BBC.
A spokeswoman for the BBC said: “The ECU ruled that while Ms Munchetty was entitled to give a personal response to the phrase ‘go back to your own country’ as it was rooted in her own experience, overall her comments went beyond what the guidelines allow for.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel