The BBC has agreed to pay £ 30,000 in compensation to a British Labor adviser in Bangladesh after mixing it with Apsana Begum in news of the MP facing housing fraud.
Photos of Lisa Begum at an event to launch the Labor Manifesto of Manifestation and Faith in 2019 were broadcast on BBC London News during an exchange on 29 October 2020, in which BBC London political correspondent said: Begum … she faces three charges of dishonesty. “
Although the correspondent said that Apsana Begum, who is also British Bangladeshi, vigorously challenged the “false and malicious allegations” – she would later be acquitted – the BBC acknowledged that the point of BBC One was that “there are reasonable grounds” to suspect that [Liza Begum] has been involved in housing fraud. “
A statement read in court on Tuesday said: “Mistaken identification has made Ms Begham particularly uncomfortable because she seemed to be another example of the BBC and the media in general, which misidentified BAME (black, Asian and ethnic minorities). which was fueled by racist images.
“She was particularly concerned that the confusion was in two colored women who appeared at a competition and faith event, and that no one at the BBC corrected it before the film with it was broadcast.
Begum first contacted the BBC on the night of the insult, and an apology was released in the bulletin the next day. She then launched a defamation suit, also asking the BBC to publicly engage in new trials to prevent the misidentification of BAME people.
The lawsuit, filed by her lawyers Rahman Lowe, cites previous examples of the BBC confusing black Labor lawmakers Dawn Butler and Marsha de Cordoba and black basketball players LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.
The BBC’s response to the lawsuit states: “Here the error occurred because the video in question was incorrectly identified as identifying your client, as she and Apsana Begum appeared at the same labor event where the recording in question was shot. This is the reason for the initial confusion in the archive. That doesn’t make the “racist” mistake, as your online client claims. “
The corporation also said that in the statement of claim there is a “citation[d] examples of misidentifications by other media organizations that have nothing to do with race or origin. “
Begham said on Tuesday: “It is legal that the BBC has publicly apologized for its mistake, but we have seen the BBC and other organizations make the same mistake with people of color. It is unacceptable for the media to make such mistakes and it reflects the deep-rooted notion that all people of color look the same.
“The Supreme Court has heard the BBC refuse to make a public commitment to bring proceedings to prevent this in the future. I hope that the BBC will now implement processes to ensure that mistakes like this do not happen again and improve the diversity of the organization.
The court heard that the BBC said it could not report to Begum on the processes it would put in place to prevent misidentification, as this would run counter to its independence and accountability to its regulator.
Begham was elected to Westminster Council in central London last year, having previously been a Labor activist and a public housing campaigner.
A BBC spokesman said: “We are very sorry for the suffering this has caused. This was a real mistake during a live program, which occurred due to improper labeling of archive footage in our system. We apologized on air at the first opportunity and took immediate steps to correct our system. We realize that we need to do better, so we have taken internal steps to avoid such situations. “
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