BBC Director-General Tim Davie is facing increasing pressure to step down following a backlash from within the newsroom. The uproar stems from the reprimand of a newsreader who altered the term “pregnant people” to “women” during a live broadcast.
There is significant discontent among senior BBC journalists over the rebuke of Martine Croxall, with accusations that the organization has fallen under the influence of what they describe as “trans ideologists.”
The Mail on Sunday has revealed that Croxall’s colleagues are preparing to take their grievances directly to the director-general. They intend to demand a reform of the broadcaster’s complaints department, which they have characterized as “absolutely mad.”
During a segment on the UK’s heatwave in June, Croxall, 56, was instructed by the autocue to advise that “pregnant people” should exercise caution. She initially read the script but then corrected it with a noticeable eyebrow raise.
However, to the surprise of many BBC staff, the Corporation’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) determined last week that Croxall had violated impartiality guidelines. The ECU argued that her expression conveyed a “strong impression of expressing a personal view on a controversial matter.”
Insiders suggest this incident marks a pivotal moment for the BBC amidst an escalating divide between journalists and management. They noted that since 2023, the complaints unit has been reporting directly to Davie.
‘If this can happen to Martine, it can happen to any of us,’ one BBC insider said. ‘There was incredulity in the newsroom when this came out.
‘All she did was say a single word that was different to the autocue, and she did not roll her eyes, she just moved her face. Are presenters not allowed to move their faces now?
Senior BBC journalists are said to be furious over the censuring of Martine Croxall amid claims that the Corporation has been ‘captured by trans ideologists’
The Mail on Sunday has learnt that colleagues of Ms Croxall are planning to complain directly to the director-general about how she has been treated
‘This is a turning point at the BBC. Tim Davie needs to go, Deborah Turness [chief executive of BBC News] needs to go, Samir Shah, the chairman needs to go.
‘Tim Davie promised he was going to come in and change things at the BBC, but under his watch we’ve had the Huw Edwards scandal, we’ve had the Tim Westwood scandal… but it is this situation with Martine that has really got people angry.
‘She has had a really moving outpouring of support from colleagues, because overwhelmingly people are on her side.’
The source said George Orwell, whose life-sized statue stands outside BBC’s New Broadcasting House in Central London, would be ‘spinning in his grave’ and likened the case against Croxall to the ‘facecrime’ policed by the Ministry of Truth in Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.
The MoS understands the phrase ‘pregnant people’ was written into the script from a press release by an under-pressure junior producer. It is understood that newsreaders will often change badly worded scripts as they deliver them without viewers realising they have diverted from the autocue.
But in this case, Ms Croxall appeared to have already faltered over the word ‘aged’, which is not in the BBC style guide, and had not spotted the phrase ‘pregnant people’ until it was too late.
The controversy has fuelled internal calls for the ECU to be scrapped. The unit is headed by veteran executive Fraser Steel, who is believed to have been involved in examining complaints about the BBC since the mid-1990s.
Another BBC source said: ‘The feeling is that the ECU is an ivory tower and some of these people genuinely believe that sex is not binary and that you can change sex. There is a suspicion within the newsroom that there must be one person, and possibly more, within the unit who is genuinely a campaigner for that point of view.
‘It’s incredibly frustrating for those on the shop floor. There is a feeling within the newsroom that the complaints unit is absolutely mad. To be fair, that view is shared by even some senior managers.’
While Ms Croxall’s manager is understood to have made the newsreader aware of the ECU’s finding against her, the MoS understands that she has not been formally reprimanded and she was not taken off air.
She yesterday presented the lunchtime news bulletin on BBC1.
There are now calls for the BBC director-general Tim Davie to resign over the newsroom revolt
Ms Croxall posted a picture of herself this week smiling into the camera with her colleague Sally Bundock sitting behind the newsdesk as the duo prepared to go live on air
The decision by the ECU to uphold 20 complaints against Ms Croxall over the ‘pregnant people’ row came a day after Michael Prescott, a former independent adviser to the BBC, claimed the Corporation avoided publishing stories critical of trans issues.
One source this weekend said there is a group of reporters in the newsroom who ‘shut down’ such coverage, saying: ‘These people make it incredibly difficult for any younger reporter ever to do any impartial investigative work when it comes to sex and gender. They have done it for years.’
Ms Croxall has been with the BBC since 1991 and was the broadcaster’s main presenter during the November 2015 Paris attacks.
She was also presenting BBC News on April 9, 2021, when the news broke of the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
The BBC declined to comment.
