Rutger Bregman: Author claims BBC 'censored' radio broadcast of Reith Lecture 'deleting' where he describes Trump as 'most openly corrupt President'
Author Rutger Bregman has claimed that the BBC “censored” his opinion of Donald Trump during a radio broadcast.
Today, the first in a series of four Reith Lectures was broadcast on BBC radio. Rutger Bregman heard that one sentence had disappeared and responded to this censorship on X.
He posted: “I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
“They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as ‘the most openly corrupt president in American history’. This sentence was taken out of a lecture they commissioned, reviewed through the full editorial process, and recorded four weeks ago in front of 500 people in the BBC Radio Theatre. I was told the decision came from the highest levels within the BBC.
“This has happened against my wishes, and I’m genuinely dismayed by it. Not because people can’t disagree with my words, but because self-censorship driven by fear (Trump threatening to sue the BBC) should concern all of us.”
He added: “It’s especially ironic because the lecture is exactly about the ‘paralyzing cowardice’ of today’s elites. About universities, corporations and media networks bending the knee to authoritarianism.
“I share this with respect for the many excellent journalists at the BBC. And with the hope that transparency helps strengthen, not weaken, our democratic culture.”
Bregman’s lectures are being broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Bregman is an author whose works include Humankind (2020) and Utopia for Realists (2017), which were both Sunday Times and New York Times best sellers, as well as Moral Ambition which was released earlier this year and was also a Sunday Times bestseller. His work has been translated into 46 languages and has sold over two million copies.
A BBC spokesperson said: “All of our programmes are required to comply with the BBC’s editorial guidelines, and we made the decision to remove one sentence from the lecture on legal advice.” The broadcaster has a responsibility to ensure all content is editorially and legally compliant across all jurisdictions where it is distributed.
The Reith Lectures have a long tradition of showcasing leading thinkers from across a range of disciplines. Previous speakers for the Reith Lectures include Bertrand Russell, George F. Kennan, Robert Oppenheimer, Hilary Mantel, Atul Gawande, J.K. Galbraith, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Niall Ferguson, Stephen Hawking, Jonathan Sumption, King (then Prince) Charles and many more.