BBC blames pro-IS broadcast images on an ‘operational error’
With much of the media world still skitter following an unprecedented hack which brought down France’s TV5Monde the BBC has been left red-faced after an ‘operational error’ led to pro-IS messages appearing on screen during a live broadcast on BBC News.
The mistake instantly drew fears that the BBC had become the latest victim of the terror group as producers hastily cut short a feature and presenter Clive Myrie scrabbled to cover for the gaffe, which saw slogans such as ‘je suIS IS’ and ‘Cybercaliphate’ appear on screen in place of a live report.
A BBC spokesperson dampened speculation that the incident was the result of outside forces however, stating: “This was an operational error in which a graphic being used in BBC reports about the French cyber-attack was broadcast briefly by mistake during another item."
The incident came just hours after a three-hour outage at French broadcaster TV5Monde after hackers brought down the networks broadcasts together with its Facebook account after swamping it with Islamic State propaganda and threats.