A BBC reporter who mistakenly Tweeted that the Queen had died was watching in-house monitors without realizing that the reporting on the Queen was part of a rehearsal for covering a Royal death.
A report by the BBC Trust’s editorial standards committee released yesterday called the tweets “a grave error in judgment” and found the reporter, Ahmen Khawaja, had not been told the rehearsal was underway and believed the story to be true when she Tweeted that the Queen had been hospitalized, and later, that she had died.
The report concluded it was a “serious breach of editorial guidelines” that had damaged the BBC’s reputation. Khawaja has been disciplined and will take “a refresher course” in social media and editorial values.
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