The BBC has upheld 20 complaints over impartiality after presenter Martine Croxall altered a script she was reading live on the BBC News Channel which referred to “pregnant people” earlier this year.
Croxall was was introducing an interview about research on groups most at risk during UK heatwaves, which quoted a release from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The presenter said: “Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, says that the aged, pregnant people … women … and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions.”
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit said it considered Croxall’s facial expression, when she changed the phrase to “pregnant women”, laid it open to the interpretation that it “indicated a particular viewpoint in the controversies currently surrounding trans ideology.”
Following her piece to camera, Dr Mistry, an assistant professor at the School, then spoke about the story, and referred to “pregnant women.”
