The BBC finds itself embroiled in a new controversy over impartiality following claims that it altered a speech by Pete Hegseth concerning a potential conflict with Iran.
In a broadcast delivered to Iranian audiences, BBC Persian reportedly mistranslated remarks by the U.S. Defense Secretary, suggesting that Washington aimed to bring harm to the Iranian ‘people’.
However, Mr. Hegseth had actually stated that the United States was focused on the Iranian ‘regime’.
During the live broadcast of Mr. Hegseth’s address from the Pentagon on Monday, the BBC translated the term ‘regime’ to ‘mardom’, the Persian word for ‘people’, before later issuing a correction.
This translation error sparked criticism from Iranians on social media, who accused the BBC of misrepresenting the situation by equating ordinary citizens with the regime’s actions, thus distorting the intent of Mr. Hegseth’s speech. Some, however, defended the translation as adequate.
In his speech, Mr. Hegseth remarked: ‘It turns out the regime that chanted “death to America and death to Israel” was gifted death from America and death from Israel. This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change and the world is better off for it.’
However, the BBC’s Persian translation substituted the target of the message, rendering the passage as: ‘It turns out the people that chanted ‘death to America and death to Israel’ was gifted death from America and death from Israel.’
The BBC has issued a correction after its Persian service ‘mistakenly altered’ a speech by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (pictured: Mr Hegseth speaks during a press conference at CENTCOM headquarters providing an update on the war against Iran)
Thamar Eilam-Gindin, an Iran expert and Persian linguist at Haifa University, said the BBC had ‘fundamentally altered the meaning’ of the address, reports the Telegraph.
‘By mistranslating the English word ‘regime’ into the Persian word ‘mardom’ —meaning ‘people’, the BBC’s Persian service fundamentally altered the meaning of the US Secretary of Defence’s speech, making it appear as though he were attacking all Iranians rather than the Islamic Republic.
The latest dispute threatens to put the BBC on another collision course with Donald Trump, who initiated a $10bn (£7.5bn) lawsuit against the broadcaster last year.
Mr Trump sued the BBC in December seeking $5billion (£4billion) in damages after claiming he was defamed in a BBC Panorama programme.
The US President is seeking a further $5 billion in damages over claims that the programme violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Panorama faced criticism over a 2024 episode for appearing to give the impression Mr Trump had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building in 2021.
A clip from his speech on January 6 was spliced to show him saying: ‘We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.’
Mr Trump has described the programme as a ‘brazen attempt’ to influence the presidential election between him and his Democrat rival Kamala Harris in legal complaints.
Donald Trump, who initiated a $10bn (£7.5bn) lawsuit against the broadcaster last year (pictured: US President Donald Trump looks on during a ‘Saving College Sports’ roundtable in the East Room of the White House)
The President’s lawyers have said ‘the BBC intentionally and maliciously sought to fully mislead its viewers around the world’.
The complaint from Mr Trump’s legal team has alleged there is ‘substantial evidence’ that demonstrates the BBC and its leadership ‘bore President Trump ill will, wanted him to lose the 2024 presidential election, and were dishonest in their coverage of him’, before the publication of the Panorama documentary.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘This mistranslated word was a mistake, as a result of human error, during the live simultaneous translation of a speech. We issued a correction to Persian audiences on air and on social media.’
The mistake is the latest in a series of criticisms against the broadcaster over its coverage of Iran, which began during the uprising earlier this year.
The BBC faced sharp criticism from the Israeli embassy in January, sparking a row over the broadcaster’s editorial priorities.
Alex Gandler, the embassy’s official spokesman, accused the network of ‘near-total silence’ regarding anti-government protests in Tehran while remaining ‘obsessed’ with the conflict in Gaza.
In a statement shared on social media, Gandler questioned the BBC’s impartiality, alleging that the corporation continues to funnel disproportionate resources into Gaza coverage at the expense of reporting on demonstrations against Iran’s theocratic leadership.
