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- The National
BBC accused of 'North Korean-style censorship' in royal coverage
Trooping the Colour – the King's annual birthday parade – was covered live by the BBC at the weekend.
But Graham Smith, CEO of Republic, has written to the boss of the events team at BBC Studios Productions accusing the broadcaster of 'censoring and erasing' the presence of 'highly visible' protests against the monarchy.
It is the first time Republic has approached the factual entertainment and events team about its coverage and has threatened to go to people 'higher up in the BBC' if there is no response.
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Smith – who says he has had several meetings with the BBC about their news coverage – told The National the broadcaster was being 'dishonest' in painting a picture of a 'devoted nation fawning over the royals'.
'Generally our focus has been on their news coverage [so far], but these big events are not done by their news teams, it's done by a separate events team,' he said.
'It's only been the last couple of years that we've been at those events, and we've started to notice […] how they are deliberately editing things out.
'Some of the commentary from people like Clare Balding at the weekend just presents this picture of a devoted nation fawning over the royals. It's not just about them cutting us out, it's about them misrepresenting the crowds, suggesting it's much larger than it is and suggesting it's royalists.'
He went on: 'There's a bit where they are showing the carriages coming down the Mall and you can see the crowds at the barriers, and then we can see – because we know what we're looking for – we can see where we are and they zoom in and you can just about see some feet and a bit of yellow [the colour Republic uses].
(Image: Aaron Chown) 'They should be covering it as it is, not doing the royals' job as a press office.
'This is why we say it's like North Korea, it's such a dishonest representation of what is going on and how people feel about it.'
At the start of last year, a Savanta poll showed support for the monarchy had fallen to just 48%.
A YouGov poll that followed a few months later showed support for the monarchy in Scotland at 50% compared to 34% backing a republic.
Smith cited how a few years ago, David Dimbleby revealed the level of control exerted by the royal family over broadcasters' rights for the Queen's funeral.
He told the Henley Book Festival that as he broadcast from St George's Chapel in Windsor the BBC was receiving emails 'almost simultaneously' from palace officials, dictating which clips of footage could not be shown in any subsequent broadcast.
'There was this complete list of things that no broadcaster could show because the copyright belongs to Buckingham Palace. I think that's wrong, just wrong,' he said.
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The letter to Hannah Wyatt, managing director of factual entertainment and events at BBC Studios, claims the BBC's coverage of Trooping the Colour 'completely ignored' the protests held by Republic, even when they could be heard in the background.
'It is not going too far to suggest that you have chosen a North Korean style of coverage which censors and erases the presence of noisy, growing and highly visible protests against the monarchy,' the letter says.
'Aerial shots of the crowd showed numbers are falling, with huge swathes of empty space outside the palace and along the Mall.
'Yet still you convey a misleading image of a packed Mall full of fawning royalists, while your commentary included no input from critics of the institution.
'These protests will get bigger and louder, and they will not stop. So, I'm asking that we meet to discuss these concerns and hopefully convey to you the seriousness of this issue.'
Smith said there has been a 'consistent pattern' at the BBC of editing out signs of opposition to the monarchy, as he claimed similar incidents had occurred the coronation and Commonwealth Day.
The BBC has been approached for comment.
