BBC apologises for Bhutto interview edit

Benazir Bhutto

• Increase image
• View all images

The BBC has apologised for editing an interview on its website with Benazir Bhutto after it deleted her astonishing claim that Osama Bin Laden had been murdered.

In the original interview with David Frost, conducted last November for the al Jazeera channel and later aired on BBC.co.uk under a licensing deal, Bhutto casually stated that Bin Laden had been killed by Omar Sheikh.

But the version shown on BBC.co.uk did not show the Bhutto's claim, prompting accusations on online message boards that it the BBC was "censoring public information".

BBC News website editor Steve Herrmann said the comment was edited out because of time pressure and because "it appeared so unexpected that it seemed she had simply mis-spoken".

In a post on the BBC.co.uk editors blog, Herrmann apologised for the editing and promised to replace the online footage with a newly edited clip, including Bhutto's allegation.

"The claim was brief and went unchallenged by Sir David Frost," he said. "Under time pressure, the item producer responsible for publishing the video on the BBC website edited out the comment, with the intent of avoiding confusion… however, editing out her comment was clearly a mistake, for which we apologise, and it should not have happened. There was no intention on our part to distort the meaning of the interview."

The full interview has been available on You Tube.