BBC gender correspondent ‘tried to dam protection of ladies’s rights marketing campaign group’ amid trans rows – as colleagues again newsreader who ‘broke guidelines’ by pulling face at ‘pregnant individuals’ script

The BBC‘s gender and identity correspondent allegedly tried to block coverage of a women’s rights campaign group amid a brewing trans row at the Corporation.

It comes as colleagues continue to offer their support to newsreader Martine Croxall after she corrected the phrase ‘pregnant people’ to ‘women’ live on air.

Her off-the-cuff correction immediately went viral, winning her widespread praise from viewers and high-profile figures including JK Rowling, who hailed her as her ‘new favourite BBC presenter’.

But the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) ruled on Thursday that Croxall breached impartiality rules, concluding that her facial expression gave a ‘strong impression of expressing a personal view on a controversial matter‘.

As tensions mount at the Corporation over the treatment of the veteran newsreader, it has now emerged that gender correspondent Megha Mohan tried to sanction women’s rights organisation Woman’s Place UK from appearing on a debate.

The BBC World Service employee, who has held the specialist role for seven years, sent an email to a colleague over representing the group’s views on air. 

Woman’s Place was established in 2017 with the aim of safeguarding single-sex spaces and services and closed down last year after saying it had achieved most of its initial goals.

In a message sent just months after she started her role, Mohan said: ‘There’s some concern from LGBT+ about giving this group a platform, they are seen as a more extreme organisation that we would be legitimizing (sic).’

She then sent a separate email, reading: ‘A couple of LGBT contacts have told me about Woman’s Place and called them transphobes in the past.’

The planned coverage of the group was never broadcast, The Telegraph reports.

Gender rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s no surprise at all that the BBC have colluded over the last seven to 10 years in not covering these stories and actively seeking to bury this issue from a women’s perspective.

‘The BBC have never invited me on. I’ve made news all over the world – Women’s Hour you’d think might have covered us a bit more.

‘BBC with their supposed bias rules can’t use it because they can’t get anyone to speak for the other side [pro trans side].’

Mohan is not an employee of the domestic or central BBC news desk and cannot commission or decommission segments from fellow journalists, a source at the Corporation said.

The Daily Mail has approached Mohan for comment.

Croxall was introducing a segment on Britain’s heatwave when the autocue instructed her to warn ‘pregnant people’ to take precautions.

After briefly reading the line, she corrected it with an eye brow raise, saying: ‘Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, said the aged, pregnant people – women – and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions.’

Complaints from just 20 viewers were upheld, with the ECU stating: ‘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 ECU upheld the complaints.’

However, many BBC staff are said to have backed Croxall, arguing she simply corrected an ‘obvious mistake’ rather than making a ‘political point’.

A BBC source told the Daily Mail: ‘She’s quite a character – she can be quite sparky, it’s not uncommon for her to do things like that and be playful with her presentation. And she can be quite robust with people on air.

‘But it’s a problem we face in our business when someone puts a bit of their personal energy on screen.

‘The question is why did she do it – it seems like she is not being transphobic, but rather that she didn’t like the bad writing in the script.

‘There’s a bit of a divide over this. A lot of people were saying it isn’t really fair on Martine, while some say it was a breach of impartiality.’

It comes as the BBC were forced to correct an article they wrote on the issue because it was decided the first was too harsh on Croxall.

The correction note read: ‘This article originally said the ECU found that Martine Croxall’s facial expression as she spoke expressed a “controversial view about trans people” and has been amended to make clear that they instead found that her expression gave the “strong impression of expressing a personal view on a controversial matter”.

‘The article also mistakenly quoted the judgement as referring to “trans ideology” and has been amended to correctly refer to “trans identity”.’

According to sources who spoke to the Daily Mail at the time, the presenter was visibly ‘shocked and frustrated’ when the autocue first displayed the words ‘pregnant people’.

One senior BBC figure remarked: ‘Most people didn’t need a Supreme Court ruling to tell them what a woman is – but based on what happened to Martine Croxall, it seems someone at the BBC might.’

The same insider insisted that Croxall ‘has the full backing of the BBC because she got it right’, adding: ‘She was stating a fact and correcting a mistake.’

Croxall has supported women on TV before – and behind the scenes also stood up with female colleagues in their fight for equal pay at the corporation.

In April the broadcaster was praised when she challenged a transgender activist who claimed the Supreme Court’s ruling that the definition of a woman is based on biological sex may still need ‘clarification’.

The BBC veteran firmly told ex-Labour MSP candidate Heather Herbert that the landmark ruling made it clear ‘sex is binary and immutable’.

Leicestershire-born Croxall repeatedly challenged Herbert after she called for further ‘clarification’ on single sex spaces, at one point reminding her: ‘The ruling is that woman means biological sex.’

Politicians were quick to condemn the BBC’s response. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: ‘Whoever reprimanded Martine Croxall has lost the plot. This is the latest in an endless series of complaints that shows the BBC is no longer acting as a public service broadcaster.

‘Licence fee payers want the truth, not force-fed ideological rubbish from a cabal of agenda-driven activists.

‘The director-general should get involved and if he cannot protect his staff then he should go and the board should recruit someone who will impose common sense. Croxall deserves an apology not a rebuke.’

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also blasted the decision, calling it ‘complete double standards’ and insisting: ‘The newsreader should be applauded, not scolded. Why should people continue to pay the licence fee?’

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused the BBC of ‘grotesque bias’, saying: ‘They have suppressed debate about the trans issue. Anyone who owns a TV is compelled to fund this organisation. Tim Davie must either explain or resign.’

Croxall, who joined the BBC in 1991, has long been known as one of the corporation’s most forthright presenters.

The controversy comes after Croxall and several female colleagues settled a legal case against the BBC over alleged pay inequality, claiming they lost roles after a ‘rigged’ recruitment process.