Sheikh Hasina’s phone call from Capitol Hill: Questions over BBC’s ‘neutrality’

Staff Correspondent

November 11, 2025: Allegations of biased journalism at the UK-based media outlet BBC have come under renewed scrutiny. BBC Director General Tim Davey and Head of News Deborah Turnes have resigned over the misleading editing of former US President Donald Trump’s January 6 speech. The incident has sparked debate in the UK, and many around the world have questioned the BBC’s impartiality.

A similar controversy has erupted in Bangladesh over the BBC Bangla division. The ruling Awami League has accused BBC Bangla of political bias over the publication of a conversation between Sheikh Hasina and Sajeeb Wazed Joy. The party claims that the audio published has been edited and distorted and presented with political motives.

The BBC claimed that the conversation between Sheikh Hasina and Joy was released as part of its own investigation. But the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Tajul Islam, told the court that the recording was their agency’s records, which the BBC had broadcast as its own. The Awami League alleged that the influence of the international PR team of the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus was clear in this incident.

The Awami League’s media wing said that BBC Bangla’s controversial campaign began in July-August 2024. They alleged that at that time, the BBC published a report titled “Students were shot at from government helicopters”, where the video used was footage of the 2013 Hefazat rally. There was no evidence of the presence of any military helicopter or firing in the video. The report was removed from the BBC Bangla website a few days later, but no explanation or correction was published.

At the same time, the Awami League is claiming that the report published by BBC Bangla that a ‘genocide’ had taken place on the orders of Sheikh Hasina was also factually incorrect. The official death toll was 749, including police, students and ordinary citizens. But the BBC report said that the death toll was more than 1,000. The party alleges that the information was circulated without verifying it and based on the information of people associated with the NCP.

In another report about Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the BBC reported that he was staying in the United States as a ‘fugitive defendant’. The Awami League claims that this is completely false information, as there is no case against Joy and he has been living in the United States for a long time.

The party further alleged that the BBC deliberately distorted Sheikh Hasina’s visit by using language that said she had fled to India. They said that Sheikh Hasina had gone to India in a government helicopter as per the protocol of the head of state, but the report used the word ‘fleeing’ to portray her as a criminal.

Following these incidents, the Awami League said that there was evidence of coordination between Yunus’ international PR team and BBC Bangla journalists. Some leaked emails published on X (Twitter) show that senior BBC Bangla journalists were in contact with a London-based PR firm, where they were advised to “maintain the anti-Hasina narrative”.

The party also cites the appointment of BBC Bangla journalist Akbar Hossain as the Press Minister of the Bangladesh High Commission in London in November 2024 as an example of this relationship.

Security analyst Aminul Haque believes that the same kind of accountability has not been seen in the BBC’s misinformation in Bangladesh as the London incident of editing Trump’s speech led to the resignation of the director general and a parliamentary inquiry. According to him, “the source in London was an unknown memo and political opposition, but in Dhaka it was a journalist close to Yunus and a source affiliated with the NCP.”

The Awami League says the BBC has admitted its mistakes in the UK, but has not made any corrections or apologies despite broadcasting incorrect reports about Sheikh Hasina and Sajeeb Wazed Joy in Bangladesh. The party has demanded that the BBC admit the wrong information, publicly apologize, form an independent investigation commission, and disclose details of its relationship with Yunus’s PR team.