The BBC Apologizes for Putting Prince Harry in Danger in This Hateful Way
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been inundated with bad press and hateful comments since the moment they got married. No matter what Meghan Markle does, be it something as small as wearing jeans to a tennis match, she gets treated like she has committed treason.
While all royals are in the spotlight, Markle certainly seems to be getting treated a bit more harshly than the others. Some people have attributed this intense scrutiny to racism, being that Markle is half black.
And now that Harry is married to Markle, he has been receiving some backlash as well. Some that even the BBC had to apologize for.
What did the BBC do?
The BBC recently had to apologize to Harry for failing to warn him before broadcasting an image from a group that called him a “race traitor.” The image, that was posted on social media by a neo-Nazi group, showed Harry with a gun pointed at his head. The collage also pictured a swastica and blood spatter.
“See ya later race traitor. #racetraitor,” the image was captioned.
The image was used as part of an article about the Sonnenkrieg Division. After posting the article, the BBC reduced the size of the image before ultimately removing it altogether.
After the article was published, the creator of the image, Michal Szewczuk, was sentenced to four years and three months in a young offender institution for two counts of encouraging terrorism and five counts of possession of terrorist material.
How did Prince Harry feel about the image?
Obviously, the Duke was not happy about the image being shown on such a big platform.
“The incident raised ‘serious security concerns’ and ’caused his family great distress specifically while his wife was nearly five months pregnant'” a spokesperson for Harry told The Guardian.
Initially, the BBC failed to listen to the Duke’s complaint and said that the use of the image was in the public interest. But now, they are apologizing for not giving Harry a warning before the image was posted.
“Before publishing seriously offensive material we need to be vigilant in balancing the impact on individuals against the wider good which may be served by publication,” the BBC said in a statement.
Does Prince Harry forgive the BBC?
Prince Harry is reportedly happy to have received the letter of apology.
“His Royal Highness welcomes the letter from the BBC relating to the shocking image published by BBC News last year as part of a report on the activities of a British neo-Nazi group with links in the US,” a spokesperson for Harry said.
“His Royal Highness raised the issue with Ofcom about the rebroadcasting of this racist image due to his concerns that hateful and dangerous propaganda had been spread globally by the world’s most important public service broadcaster. Due to the credibility of the BBC, their choice to publicize this material created an open door for all other media to reproduce it.”
But he still does not agree with them posting the image in the first place.
“His Royal Highness maintains that instead of reproducing the image and giving a platform to something that would have only been seen by a few, it should have been described so that others would not potentially be influenced by such an inflammatory image,” the spokesperson continued.