British journalist Owen Jones has said the policy seems like “Orwellian stuff.”
The BBC has told its staff to avoid referring to the US’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a “kidnapping” and to use less charged alternatives like “seized,” according to a leaked internal memo shared online by British journalist and Guardian columnist Owen Jones.
Maduro was taken into custody during a US military raid on Caracas over the weekend and flown to New York to face US drug trafficking and weapons charges, which he denied during his first appearance in court. Maduro maintained that he had been “kidnapped.”
However, according to the leaked memo, the BBC management now “effectively bans… journalists from saying that the US ‘kidnapped’” Maduro, with acceptable terms being ‘seized’ and ‘captured’.
In his post, Jones called ‘seized’ “at best, a euphemism,” labeling the policy “Orwellian stuff” and recalling that US President Donald Trump himself has admitted that ‘kidnapped’ is “not a bad term.”
This follows UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s refusal to answer whether the US attack on Venezuela violated international law, emphasizing that Britain’s priority remains a “peaceful transition to democracy.”
The leaked memo contributes to the controversy surrounding the BBC regarding its editorial policies. In November, the broadcaster issued a formal apology after a program edited a Trump speech on January 6, 2021, when supporters of the US president stormed Congress to prevent the ratification of Joe Biden’s election victory.
At that time, the BBC admitted that the edit gave “the wrong impression that President Trump had directly called for violent action.” The scandal led to the resignation of senior staff and resulted in a $10 billion defamation lawsuit by Trump, which the BBC plans to contest.
The BBC has also repeatedly faced criticism for its Israel – Gaza coverage, with critics accusing it of having a strong pro – Israel bias and downplaying the suffering of the Palestinians.