Dr Clive Nwonka: an apology

On 25 September, Broadcast published an article, based on an RTS panel session (Defining Diversity), that seriously mischaracterised the views of Dr Clive Nwonka.

The article initially said that Dr Nwonka believes gender should be removed as a diversity category from the BFI diversity standards, which is not the case and directly against his longstanding research or the recommendations of his recent report into the diversity standards.

This was a significant error of editorial judgement by Broadcast. We were attempting to summarise a complex point and fundamentally misunderstood Dr Nwonka’s position.

We conflated several of his statements during the panel session (that gender was the most popular diversity characteristic and more palatable to the structures of power; that productions could be considered diverse without including one single ethnic minority face; and that black women were generally excluded from the gender category in favour of white women) and wrongly summarised that he believed gender should be removed as a diversity characteristic.

This was muddled thinking and not what he said. This was an error made in good faith, rather than with any intent on Broadcast’s part and we would like to apologise for the errors in reporting and for the misunderstanding or offence caused by them.