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BBC trans coverage ‘censored’ by its own reporters
Corporation’s LGBT desk ‘keeps other perspectives off air’, leaked internal dossier claims
The BBC’s trans coverage is subject to “effective censorship” by specialist LGBT reporters who refuse to cover gender-critical stories, one of the broadcaster’s own advisers has warned.
BBC staff have expressed concerns that the LGBT desk – which is shared by all the corporation’s news programmes – has been “captured by a small group of people” promoting a pro-trans agenda and “keeping other perspectives off air”.
This has led to “a constant drip-feed of one-sided stories … celebrating the trans experience without adequate balance or objectivity”, a leaked internal BBC memo concludes. It said it reflected a “cultural problem across the BBC”, which treats issues of gender and sexuality as “a celebration of British diversity” rather than a complex and contentious subject.
The latest accusations of BBC bias come after The Telegraph revealed that a Panorama documentary doctored footage of a Donald Trump speech, and that the corporation minimised reports of Israeli suffering in the Gaza war to “paint Israel as the aggressor”.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, has said “heads should roll” at the corporation, while Israel’s deputy foreign minister has called for the resignation of Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general.
On Wednesday, Lord Grade, the head of Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, wrote to Samir Shah, the BBC’s chairman, urging him to “thoroughly” examine the allegations.
The debate around transgender rights, and children being given irreversible medical interventions such as puberty blockers, has been one of the most highly charged issues in politics, society and medicine in recent years.
It led to a Supreme Court ruling that “sex” referred to biological sex rather than gender identity, and the independent Cass Review of gender identity services, which resulted in the closure of the controversial Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock clinic in London.
But stories reflecting the views of people who challenged the concept of gender identity were largely suppressed by the BBC’s LGBT reporters, according to a memo written by a former member of the broadcaster’s editorial guidelines and standards committee.
The Telegraph has seen a copy of the 19-page memo, which was sent to members of the BBC Board last month and is now circulating in government departments.
It was compiled by Michael Prescott, who until June was an independent adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee, and sent to executives because of his “despair at inaction by the BBC executive when issues come to light”.
It warns that the BBC is not only risking bias in its coverage of trans issues, but is confusing viewers by failing to make it clear that transgender women are biological males, or even transgender at all.
Mr Prescott writes in the memo that soon after he started his advisory role in 2022 he was approached by a BBC presenter, a reporter and a producer, all of whom had similar concerns about the broadcaster’s coverage of trans issues.
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A BBC presenter contacted me about a month after I started working with the EGSC. He put me in touch with a reporter and a producer. All three were from different parts of the BBC but had shared concerns about BBC coverage of the trans issue.
The story that each person told me was what sounded like effective censorship by the specialist LGBTQ desk within News.
As virtually all shows had lost their own reporters, programme editors had to make requests to News if they wanted a correspondent to cover a story. I was told that time and time again, the LGBTQ desk staffers would decline to cover any story raising difficult questions about the trans debate.
The allegation made to me was stark: that the desk had been captured by a small group of people promoting the Stonewall view of the debate and keeping other perspectives off-air. Individual programmes had come to lack their own reporters as a counterweight.
What I was told chimed with what I saw for myself on BBC Online - that stories raising difficult questions about the 'trans agenda' were ignored even if they had been widely taken up and discussed across other media outlets.
There was also a constant drip-feed of one-sided stories, usually news features, celebrating the trans experience without adequate balance or objectivity.
Internal memo sent to BBC managers
Stonewall, the LGBT rights charity, has attracted growing controversy in recent years over its increasing focus on trans rights, resulting in all government departments, as well as the BBC, withdrawing from its Diversity Champions scheme for equal opportunity employers.
Mr Prescott had already noticed that stories raising difficult questions about the trans agenda were not being covered by the BBC, even when they were being widely reported elsewhere.
David Grossman, the editorial guidelines and standards committee’s senior editorial adviser, was asked to examine the BBC’s coverage of trans issues.
In October last year, he reported back to the committee and “found many shortcomings” in the BBC’s reporting.
On story selection, his report warned of an “unintended editorial bias”
“Significant voices” were too often missing from the BBC's coverage, including those who had transitioned and regretted their decision or those who had concerns about the process
The report couldn't find a single example in the review period that reflected the experience of de-transitioners
It noted there were more stories about the waiting times for people to receive care than examining the quality of that care itself.
It also noted a surprisingly high number of stories about drag queens considering it is such a niche group of people.
Stories that raised concerns about the quality or safety of care given to gender questioning children and adults received "little or no coverage"
In March 2024, there was widespread media coverage of leaked documents from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health which raised concerns about he quality of care given to gender-distressed children. It was picked up by the Mail, Economist, Observer, Washington Post, the Times and others but not the BBC
There was also scant coverage of biological women campaigning to exclude biological men from sensitive spaces
The BBC failed to cover the story of Darlington nurses who took their employer to court for allowing their changing room to be used by biological males. This story was covered extensively by other news outlets including Sky News and GB News
Similarly, there was no coverage of claims biological male police and prison officers were being allowed to conduct strip searches on women and girls
The report warned that the phrase "assigned at birth" in relation to biological sex was appearing frequently in coverage, despite being advised against in guidelines
The report noted concerns with how the debate about the Cass Review was framed on Newsnight - the views of a doctor critical of the Tavistock Clinic were "balanced" with those of a trans woman, who said she had received excellent care. The report pointed out that if Newsnight was covering concerns about a maternity unit it would not seek to provide balance by interviewing a mother who was happy with her care
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Internal memo sent to BBC managers
Among stories ignored by the BBC was the leaking of documents from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health in March 2024 that raised concerns about the quality of care given to gender-distressed children, which was covered by The Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Economist, the Observer, the Washington Post, The Times and others.
Other media outlets gave extensive coverage to the WPATH story
The Telegraph, March 5 2024
Doctors admit link between transgender hormone therapy and cancer in leaked emails
The Economist, March 5
Leaked discussions reveal uncertainty about transgender care
The Mail, March 5
Trans healthcare doctors are exposed admitting that some patients are too young or mentally ill to understand the consequences of their treatment
The Guardian, March 9
Why disturbing leaks from US gender group WPATH ring alarm bells in the NHS
The Times, March 12
NHS bans puberty blockers for children
The BBC also failed to cover the story of Darlington nurses who took their employer to court for allowing their changing rooms to be used by biological males, or the story of biological male police and prison officers allegedly conducting strip searches on women and girls.
Mr Grossman noted concerns with the way the Cass Review was covered on Newsnight, which “balanced” the views of a doctor critical of the Tavistock clinic with those of a trans woman who said she had received excellent care.
The report said that if Newsnight were covering concerns about a maternity unit it would not seek “balance” by interviewing a mother who was happy with her care.
The one exception was the reporting of Newsnight’s Hannah Barnes, who broke a series of stories about the NHS gender identity service, but who has now left the BBC.
Mr Prescott says in his memo: “Her work might well now not be possible at the BBC, given the culture I describe combined with changes at Newsnight and the lack now of any programme-specific reporters.”
‘Constant drip feed of one-sided stories’
Instead of giving viewers, listeners and readers a balanced view of the trans debate, the BBC gave them “a constant drip-feed of one-sided stories, usually news features, celebrating the trans experience without adequate balance or objectivity”, the leaked memo says.
One “typical example” was the story of Gisele Shaw, “a gushing tale of a transgender wrestler who felt ‘liberated’ by coming out”, it says.
A story published on the BBC website in March 2023 “glossed over how the wrestler, who is a biological male, had repeatedly won trophies by competing in women’s competitions”.