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DIRECTOR GENERAL Tony Hall has finally issued an apology for the BBC’s use of the N-word, two weeks after it was used in a news report.
A reporter quoted the racial slur in a regional news broadcast on July 29 when describing a racist attack on an NHS worker known as K-Dogg.
The broadcaster had previously said that the word was “editorially justified given the context” and was quoted in full at the request of the victim’s family.
But the BBC received over 18,600 complaints about the report while Ofcom received 384, and Lord Hall issued his apology in an email to staff on Sunday and said the BBC should have taken a different approach.
He said that he recognised that the report had caused distress among many people and said the BBC would be strengthening its guidance on offensive language in its output.
BBC 1Xtra DJ Sideman — real name David Whitely — quit the station in the furore over the report, saying that the “action and the defence of the action feels like a slap in the face of our community.”