THE BBC, TRUST, AND THE GREY RHINO WE ALL SAW COMING

There are very few media organisations in the world that genuinely transcend their national borders. Many outlets are well-known globally, of course, but the vast majority are read primarily within their own countries or among their diaspora. Truly global news institutions, those that shape conversations in multiple continents simultaneously are rare.

- By Farzana Baduel

The British, for decades, have been particularly adept at producing these international heavyweights. The Economist, The Financial Times, The Guardian, the Daily Mail, and Sky News all enjoy readerships well beyond the UK. But the jewel in the crown, the most recognised, respected, and widely consumed British media export, has always been the BBC.

For those of us working in public relations, we know that trust is the cornerstone of any brand. It takes decades to build, a lifetime to cultivate and only minutes to lose. Trust collapses when there is a values gap: the distance between what an organisation claims about itself and how it behaves. And it is this values gap that now sits at the heart of the BBC's deepest crisis in decades.

The BBC positions itself as impartial. Impartiality is not merely a tagline; it is the bedrock of its global authority. Yet it is that very principle that has been called into question in recent weeks, after a Panorama documentary spliced together two sections of President Donald Trump's speech that were in fact over fifty minutes apart. The edit altered the meaning of the speech, and while some may argue about intent versus error, the result was unquestionably a failure to meet the BBC's own standards of accurate representation.

The documentary aired over a year ago, but it only exploded into public view when a rival British media outlet surfaced an internal memo that had been circulating within the BBC raising concerns about the edit. Here is where PR becomes relevant: timing is everything.

In crisis communications, when something problematic surfaces internally, the race begins immediately. The only winning strategy is to take control, to surface the issue yourself, on your own terms, with transparency and accountability. That is good PR.