At a glance
A BBC newsreader who replaced the phrase “pregnant people” with “women” while live on air has been found to have breached the broadcaster’s impartiality rules.
The BBC upheld complaints that journalist Martine Croxall “expressed a controversial view about trans people”.
Ms Croxall made a face and changed the script as she introduced an item about research into heat-related deaths that was being carred out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
A newsreader who went viral after she made a face and replaced the phrase “pregnant people” with “women” while live on air has been found to have broken BBC impartiality rules.
Twenty viewers’ complaints were upheld by the broadcaster on the basis that journalist Martine Croxall “expressed a controversial view about trans people”.
Ms Croxall, 56, changed the script as she introduced a brief item about research into heat-related deaths by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of impartiality and said the facial expression, which accompanied the change of “people” to “women”, laid it “open to the interpretation that it indicated a particular viewpoint in the controversies currently surrounding trans identity”.
The clip went viral on social media, with Harry Potter author JK Rowling writing on X: “I have a new favourite BBC presenter.”
Ms Croxall said “the aged, pregnant people … women” in the clip and was reacting to scripting with “clumsily incorporated phrases”, according to BBC News.
I have a new favourite BBC presenter. https://t.co/l2gkThccty
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 22, 2025
Management told the ECU that this included “the aged”, which is not BBC style, and “pregnant people”, which did not match what was said in the clip that followed.
The ECU ruled that the critical views expressed in the complaints, alongside the congratulatory messages Ms Croxall later received on social media, “tended to confirm that the impression of her having expressed a personal view was widely shared across the spectrum of opinion on the issue”.
The ECU upheld its complaint as “giving the strong impression of expressing a personal view on a controversial matter, even if inadvertently, falls short of the BBC’s expectations of its presenters and journalists in relation to impartiality.”
The finding was reported to the management of BBC News and discussed with Ms Croxall and the editorial team concerned.
