The latest blunder could pile yet more pressure on the BBC.
Pete Hegseth (Image: Getty)
The BBC has been accused of mistranslating a speech made by US War Secretary Pete Hegseth, reigniting a row over the broadcaster’s impartiality.
BBC Persian, which broadcasts to audiences inside Iran, reportedly translated comments by the US defence secretary as saying Washington was bringing death to the Iranian “people”.
Members of the public, however, quickly realised this was incorrect – Mr Hegseth had referred to the Iranian “regime” as the target, rather than the “people”.
Critics have accused the BBC of ‘fundamentally altering the meaning’ of what the Defence Secretary was saying – however a spokesperson for the broadcaster said it was a human mistake made ‘during the live simultaneous translation of a speech’.
A BBC spokesman told the Telegraph: “This mistranslated word was a mistake, as a result of human error, during the live simultaneous translation of a speech. We issued a correction to Persian audiences on air and on social media.”
It comes as US President Donald Trump is suing the BBC for defamation over the way two sections of a speech the US President delivered in 2021 were edited together in an episode of Panorama aired in 2024.
Panorama faced criticism late last year over the editing in the episode, accused of appearing to give the impression the US President had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building in 2021.
In the episode, a clip from Mr Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, was spliced and showed him saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth [file image] (Image: Getty)
Panorama faced criticism late last year over the editing in the episode, accused of appearing to give the impression the US President had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building in 2021.
In the episode, a clip from Mr Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, was spliced and showed him saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The latest blunder will surely anger the US President, who has previously slammed the BBC over the Panorama error.
In November, the BBC apologised to Mr Trump, saying the edit had given “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”. However, it rejected the US President’s claims for compensation – and says it will be defending the case.
