BBC staff attempted to ‘block’ an interview with JK Rowling from taking place due to her views on women’s rights, a former senior editor at the broadcaster has revealed.
A Newsnight producer ‘with strong views on trans issues’ labelled the Harry Potter author ‘very problematic’ during an editorial meeting, according to ex-diplomatic editor Mark Urban.
The respected journalist also claimed that BBC executives adopt a position of ‘defensiveness’ when the broadcaster is criticised and have a ‘tendency to ignore complaints in the hope they’ll go away’.
The revelations from Mr Urban – who worked at the BBC for 35 years – are the latest to emerge in a bias scandal that is engulfing the broadcaster.
It comes after a leaked internal BBC report into impartiality said there was ‘effective censorship’ by LGBT staff in the news division of the broadcaster.
The report by Michael Prescott, a former independent adviser to the BBC editorial watchdog, said the broadcaster had been ‘captured by a small group of people’ promoting a pro-trans agenda and ‘keeping other perspectives off air’.
Mr Urban wrote on his Substack page that at the BBC, like with other media organisations, ‘generational change brought a younger, more dirigiste kind of progressivism onto the team’.
Because of this ‘the language of ‘lived experience’, ‘don’t be a bystander’, and formulas such as ‘silence is violence’, entered the editorial conversation’.
BBC staff attempted to ‘block’ an interview with JK Rowling from taking place due to her views on women’s rights. Pictured in 2022
Mr Urban added: ‘Thus I was in a meeting where one producer with strong views on trans issues tried to veto an interview bid for JK Rowling, saying she was ‘very problematic’ (she didn’t want to come on anyway).’
Maya Forstater, chief executive of Sex Matters, said the claim ‘will surprise very few campaigners for sex-based rights’.
‘Many in the public eye with gender critical views have been ignored for BBC interviews when they would have been the logical person to comment,’ she said.
‘I strongly suspect this won’t be the last example of sex-realist voices being blocked that we hear of from BBC insiders.’
A BBC spokesman said: ‘We have taken a number of actions relating to our reporting of sex and gender including updating the news style guide and sharing new guidance, making our Social Affairs Editor responsible for this coverage, and where there have been concerns about particular stories, we have addressed them.
‘We continually review our coverage to reflect developments such as the recent Supreme Court Ruling.’
