[Lucy.Honey]

'Biased' BBC is 'rewriting British history to promote a woke agenda', a group of leading academics warns

• Academics writing in History Reclaimed accused the BBC of 'consistent bias'
• It said programmes have omitted key facts and included 'inaccurate material'
• Most frequently raised were allegations over biased representation of slavery
• The academics criticised six different programmes from early 2020 to present

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...mics-warn.html

The BBC has 'consistent bias' which amounts to rewriting British history to promote 'woke' views, a group of academics has claimed, as they accused the broadcaster of 'pandering to politically motivated activists'.

Academics writing for History Reclaimed published a report on Wednesday in which they named six examples of BBC programming since the start of 2020 which they say support their allegations.

The group accuses shows such as The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan, a report on the Benin Bronzes and Digging For Britain of rewriting history to promote a 'woke agenda'.

The BBC supposedly gives 'a voice only to one side of a disputed past, even presenting false history as uncontested fact', most commonly in relation to the transatlantic slave trade.

The group writes the BBC is using individual programmes to foster 'a negative view of British history, and especially of its relations with the non-European world from which British citizens of ethnic minority backgrounds and their ancestors originally came.'

Other programmes mentioned by the group included Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson and a Radio 4 programme with author Kit De Waal on Sarah Forbes Bonetta.

History Reclaimed is edited by David Abulafia and Robert Tombs.

He and Mr Tombs are both professors emeritus at the University of Cambridge, where he specialises in Italian and Spanish history, while Mr Tombs specialises in French history.

Mr Abulafia has previously advocated for retaining the Rosetta stone, instead of returning it to Egypt, and suggested Britain should not pay reparations to countries impacted by the slave trade.

Mr Tombs has argued against repatriating the Benin Bronzes and called decolonisation a 'dangerous farce'.