BBC Apologises and Pays Damages to PinkNews Bosses Over False Defamatory Allegations

The BBC has issued an unreserved apology and agreed to pay substantial damages to Benjamin Cohen, founder of PinkNews, and his husband Anthony James, following false sexual misconduct allegations. The settlement, confirmed at the High Court in London on Thursday, resolves a libel claim stemming from a December 2024 documentary titled *PinkNews: Behind Closed Doors* and an accompanying article. The broadcaster conceded that the published claims were completely untrue, defamatory, and severely damaging to the couple's professional and personal reputations.

In a joint statement read to the court, the couple's barrister, Lorna Skinner KC, outlined how the broadcaster wrongly accused the executives of misconduct toward junior staff and placing inappropriate pressure on female employees regarding surrogacy. 'These allegations were false and extremely harmful to the claimants' reputations,' Skinner noted. Jane Phillips, representing the BBC, confirmed the retraction, stating: 'The BBC retracts and apologises unreservedly for the defamatory allegations made in the programme and the article.' The couple plans to donate their undisclosed compensation payout to the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Charity.

The defamatory broadcast caused severe repercussions during what should have been a celebratory period for the family, who had a six-month-old child via surrogacy at the time. Skinner revealed that the allegations triggered intrusive additional investigations ahead of a parental order hearing for their newborn son. Furthermore, both executives felt forced to resign from respected charitable positions: Cohen stepped down as a trustee of a disability charity, and James left his role as a non-executive director at Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

In their public response, Cohen and James criticized the corporation for ignoring prior warnings regarding the claims, accusing the BBC of reinforcing damaging homophobic tropes about gay men. They stressed that licence fee payers are owed an explanation as to how such an editorial failure occurred. With the defamatory material permanently removed from iPlayer and the record formally corrected, the couple stated they can finally move forward while urging the broadcaster to learn from its reckless journalism.