The BBC is facing accusations of engaging in “Orwellian manipulation” of the news after it edited an article on a convicted paedophile to remove references to his role in organising a Pride event and that he also performed as a drag queen.
In its original article on Andrew Way, who has been sentenced to 34 months in prison this week after a group of paedophile hunters tricked him into thinking that he was sending explicit messages to a 14-year-old boy, the BBC originally included the fact that he has acted as a “drag queen” and that he “had also been organising the first-ever gay Pride event for Welshpool, Powys.”
However, the public broadcaster has since scrubbed both facts from its article as well as having deleted a post on social media referencing Way’s role as a drag queen.
The article now contains the disclaimer: “An earlier version of this story made reference to details not reported in court and has been updated accordingly.”
This explanation did not suffice for many on social media, however, with political commentator Chris Rose writing: “A state broadcaster shouldn’t be selective with facts when they wouldn’t hide details for other groups. I’m sure BBC Verify & Marianna Spring are investigating.”
Comedian and GB News presenter Leo Kearse added: “This isn’t objective journalism – this is Orwellian manipulation of the news to remove facts that don’t align with the establishment narrative.”
Way, who has been active as a drag queen for over four decades under the stage name ‘Miss Gin’, according to The Telegraph, was found to have messaged a paedophile hunting group posing online as a 14-year-old boy that he wanted to meet up to “do it” and even sent pictures of his genitals to what he assumed was a teenage boy.
A frequent attendee of the LGBT Pride events in Wales, the convicted paedophile had already been subject to a lifelong sexual harm prevention order after a 2007 conviction.
Sentencing him to 34 months in prison for his latest offences, Judge Niclas Parry said Way had shown “utter disregard” for previous court orders prohibiting him from unsupervised contact with children, adding: “These were serious and persistent and different breaches,”
It is far from the first time that the BBC has faced accusations of bias in its reporting on transgender issues, with the publicly-funded broadcaster being forced last year to amend an article to reflect that a transgender murderer was not born as a woman as the original article had implied.