BBC Apologizes for Another False Report About J.K. Rowling’s Transgender Views

The BBC has issued a public apology for publishing a misleading story about author J.K. Rowling’s remarks regarding transgender people in her Harry Potter series. They acknowledged that its reporting was “inaccurate” and warned its staff about the “importance of accuracy.”

The BBC Scotland story from April 2 stated that police turned down Rowling’s request to be arrested for describing transgender “women” as males. Erroneously claiming that the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021  “makes it a criminal offence to make derogatory comments based on disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex.” Here’s a link to see the original story, before they issued the apology.

Editors acknowledged the error in a clarification released later in the week that the BBC’s reporting regarding the act was inaccurate, stating: 

“This was inaccurate and we should have referred to the Act creating a new crime where it is an offence if someone communicates material or behaves in a threatening or abusive manner with the intention of ‘stirring up hatred’ based on these protected characteristics,” they said. “We apologise for any confusion caused and have reminded our teams of the importance of accuracy in our output.”

According to Deadline, this makes the third time the BBC has had to issue an apology for how it has covered J.K. Rowling and her opinions on transgender people. First when Rowling was referred to as “transphobic” on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland program last year, the BBC issued an apology. Later in the same year, Rowling was accused by a guest on Radio 4’s “PM” program of spreading “transphobia,” for which the BBC issued an apology for failing to confront her.

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