BBC Apologises for Wrong Tweet Claiming Queen Elizabeth Was Hospitalised

Britain`s Queen Elizabeth II travels to Buckingham Palace by royal carriage after delivering the Queen`s Speech in London 27 May 2015 which marks the official opening of Parliament 27 May 2015. EPA/BGNES

The BBC apologised on Wednesday for accidentally setting off Twitter rumours that Queen Elizabeth had been hospitalized.

A BBC spokesperson said in a statement: “During a technical rehearsal for an obituary, tweets were mistakenly sent from the account of a BBC journalist saying that a member of the royal family had been taken ill. The tweets were swiftly deleted and we apologise for any offence.”

By coincidence, the Queen went to a hospital earlier on Wednesday for her routine annual medical check-up.

The message was posted on Twitter from the account of BBC broadcast journalist Ahmen Khawaja, a reporter working for the BBC’s Urdu-language service.

The tweet said: “Breaking: Queen Elizabeth is being treated at King Edward VII Hospital in London. Statement due shortly.”

The tweet was picked up by media outlets including CNN and German newspaper Bild. However, when NBC News alerted Buckingham Palace to the message, a spokesman said that the Queen was not only alive but carrying out public engagements.

The BBC journalist later deleted the tweet, apologised for what she described as a “false alarm” and suggested her phone might have been hacked.

Buckingham Palace later issued a statement reassuring the public that the 89-year-old monarch was in good health.

 

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