The BBC has agreed to pay £ 30,000 in damages to a British Labor councilor in Bangladesh after mixing it with Apsana Begum in a news story about the MP facing charges of home fraud.
Pictures of Liza Begum at a 2019 launch event and faith manifesto were broadcast on BBC London News during an exchange on 29 October 2020, in which the BBC’s political correspondent in London said: “This is Apsana Begum … she faces three charges of dishonesty.”
Although the correspondent said that Apsana Begum, also a British woman from Bangladesh, had vigorously challenged the “false and malicious allegations” – she would later be acquitted – the BBC admitted that the meaning of the BBC One broadcast was that “there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that [Liza Begum] he had committed fraud in the house ”.
A misdemeanor statement on Tuesday read: “The misidentification caused Mr Begum special distress because it seemed like another example of the BBC, and the media in general, misidentifying BAME people (black, Asian and ethnic minority), which fed on racist troops.
“She was especially anxious that the confusion was about two women of color appearing at a career and faith event, and that no one at the BBC corrected her before her film aired.”
Begum first contacted the BBC on the night of the offensive broadcast and an apology was issued in the next day’s bulletin. He then launched a defamation suit, also requesting that the BBC publicly engage in new processes to prevent the misidentification of BAME people.
The letter of complaint, sent by his lawyers Rahman Lowe, cited earlier examples from the BBC confusing black Labor MPs Dawn Butler and Marsha of Cordoba, and black basketball players LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.
The BBC’s reply to the letter of complaint stated: “Here, the error arose because the video in question was incorrectly tagged as your customer’s ID because she and Apsana Begum appeared at the same work event where it was captured. “This is what caused the original confusion in the file. This does not make the error” racist, “as your online client has stated.”
The corporation also said the letter of complaint had “cited[d] examples of misidentification by other media organizations that have nothing to do with race or background. ”
Begum said on Tuesday: “It is true that the BBC has publicly apologized for its mistake, but we have seen time and time again that the BBC and other organizations make the same mistake with people of color. It is unacceptable for the media to make such mistakes. and reflects a deep-rooted notion that all people of color seem equal.
“The High Court heard how the BBC refused to make a public commitment to launch processes to prevent this in the future. I hope that now the BBC will implement processes to ensure that mistakes like this do not happen again and improving diversity within the organization “.
The court learned that the BBC said it could not inform Begum of the processes it would put in place to prevent misidentification because it would be incompatible with its independence and accountability to its regulator.
Begum was elected to Westminster Council in central London last year after serving as a Labor Party activist and community and social housing activist.
A BBC spokesman said: “We are deeply saddened by the distress this has caused. “We took immediate action to correct our system. We recognize that we need to do better, so we’ve taken action internally to prevent similar situations from happening.”