Ofcom sparks fury after failure to investigate BBC trans complaint: 'Outrageous, biased regulation!'

Ofcom sparks fury after failure to investigate BBC trans complaint: 'Outrageous, biased regulation!'

'Absolutely wrong!' Emily Carver hits out at Tom Harwood in fierce row over trans rights

GB News
George Bunn

By George Bunn


Published: 20/03/2024

- 10:25

Updated: 20/03/2024

- 11:07

The BBC said it received complaints that its reports on the conviction of Scarlet Blake referred to her as a woman

Ofcom has been slammed over an "outrageous, biased regulation" into the BBC's coverage of the trial of transgender killer Scarlet Blake.

Blake, a trans woman, hit Jorge Martin Carreno before pushing him into the River Cherwell in Oxford in July 2021.


Blake, who months earlier livestreamed the killing of a cat in a blender, was found guilty of murder at Oxford Crown Court and has been jailed for a minimum of 24 years.

Now, Baroness Emma Harriet Nicholson has called on Ofcom to investigate the BBC, who referred to Blake as a woman during coverage of the trial.

\u200bScarlet Blake

Scarlet Blake was referred to as a woman during her trial

PA/Thames Valley Police/X

In an open letter posted on social media, Baroness Nicholson, said: "Scarlet Blake is male (saying so might incur the wrath of Stonewall but I understand Ofcom have cancelled its subscription to their benchmarking schemes).

"Referring to him as woman, irrespective of any mention of of his transgender claims, is not only inaccurate. This man put a cat in the blender live streamed the process and murdered a complete stranger.

DON'T LET THEM SILENCE US - SUPPORT GB NEWS HERE

"Reporting him as a woman is profoundly offensive to many real women....Why is the reporting of a cruel and violent male as a woman not deemed an issue worthy of investigation?"

Commentator Patrick O' Flynn added: "So the BBC's lie about the perpetrator of a murder being a woman when the individual was in fact a man has been deemed unworthy of investigation by Ofcom. Outrageous, biased regulation."

JK Rowling wrote: "I’m so sick of this s***,” linking to the video on X, formerly Twitter, before adding: "This is not a woman. These are #NotOurCrimes."

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

\u200bBaroness Nicholson/BBC entrance

Baroness Nicholson has criticised the BBC's coverage of the Blake trial

PA/WikiCommons

Earlier this month, the BBC did respond to the claims that they had referred to Scarlett Blake as a woman.

In an official response, a spokesperson from the BBC said: "Scarlet Blake was tried as a woman and the pronoun ‘she’ was used throughout. BBC reporting in this area follows the publicly available BBC News style guide.

"It says: 'We generally use the term and pronoun preferred by the person in question, unless there are editorial reasons not to do so.'

"In this case, we considered it editorially appropriate to include the fact that Blake is a transgender woman and did so across our output. We accept that should have been included in the report on the News at One on 26 February."

Baroness Nicholson's letter

Baroness Nicholson's letter was posted to social media in full

X/@Baroness_Nichol

GB News has approached Ofcom for a comment in response to Baroness Nicholson's claims.

Blake will serve her sentence in a male prison.

At the sentencing, Justice Chamberlain said: "The decision to kill Jorge was not a reaction to something he had said or done - it was not a momentary mistake, it was not a decision made in anger or because your emotions overcame you.

"It is the culmination of a plan you've been considering and formulating for months before, and after July 25 as you showed an obsession with harm and death."

GB News, which has been targeted by a far-left advertising boycott since before it even launched, recently announced a membership scheme to allow viewers who want to support the channel to do so directly.

DON'T LET THEM SILENCE US - SUPPORT GB NEWS HERE

You may like