BBC apologises unreservedly for false and defamatory allegations against PinkNews bosses

The BBC has retracted and apologised unreservedly in the High Court for false and defamatory allegations made about PinkNews founder and CEO Benjamin Cohen and his husband, COO Anthony James, in a 2024 documentary and accompanying news coverage.

In a Statement in Open Court at the High Court in London on Thursday, 8 October, the BBC accepted that allegations made in its December 2024 documentary PinkNews: Behind Closed Doors and associated BBC News coverage were false and extremely harmful to the married couple’s reputations.

Jane Phillips, Counsel for the BBC told the court: “The BBC retracts and apologises unreservedly for the defamatory allegations made in the programme and the article.”

The broadcaster has also agreed to pay Cohen and James compensation, which they will donate to the Multiple Sclerosis Society and Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Charity.

What the BBC alleged

Among the allegations were claims that Cohen and James had enabled and tolerated sexual misconduct by themselves and each other towards junior employees at PinkNews.

The BBC’s online coverage also alleged that they had placed inappropriate pressure on young female employees to act as surrogates for them.

In a joint statement following the hearing, Cohen and James said that “the BBC ignored warnings about the veracity of these allegations and chose to broadcast false claims to millions of people”.

The settlement brings to an end defamation proceedings brought by the couple against the BBC.

‘Our lives were thrown into chaos’

Cohen and James said the consequences extended far beyond their reputations.

“When this began, we were new dads and our son who was just six months old,” they said.

“What should have been one of the happiest periods of our lives was instead thrown into chaos, impacting our business, our colleagues and our family.”

The Statement in Open Court confirmed that the couple were subjected to additional Cafcass investigations by social workers ahead of the routine parental-order hearing for their son, causing “considerable anxiety and distress during a time when they ought to have been able to focus on their newborn son”.

Both men also felt compelled to leave significant roles outside PinkNews. Cohen resigned as a trustee of international disability charity Humanity & Inclusion, while James resigned from his role as an associate non-executive director at Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The couple said the false allegations were particularly painful as gay men, “the BBC reinforced one of the most damaging homophobic tropes: that gay men are sexual predators who pose a threat to others”.

“These were allegations that should never have been broadcast,” they said.

They said their greatest fear was what the allegations could mean for their son in the future.

“We have worried about the day he goes to school and other children find these false allegations online. We have worried about what he might read about his dads, what his friends might say and what that could do to him.

“Today’s apology cannot erase what happened, but it means that when that day eventually comes, the truth will be there.”

‘The BBC now needs to explain how this happened’

Cohen and James told PinkNews the case should raise wider questions about editorial standards and accountability at the BBC.

“The BBC’s authority makes mistakes like this more dangerous, not less,” they said.

“When one of the world’s biggest news organisations tells millions of people something is true, those people understandably expect it to have done the work necessary to stand behind what it broadcasts.

“In our case, it hadn’t.”

The couple called on the BBC’s new leadership to examine how the allegations came to be broadcast.

Their intervention comes during the BBC’s once-in-a-decade Royal Charter Review. A House of Commons committee examining the corporation’s future said last week that the BBC had made errors in news and current-affairs output and had at times struggled to manage resulting crises with sufficient speed and confidence.

Cohen and James said the review should consider both editorial accountability and the negative impacts of the publicly funded BBC on independent, local and specialist publishers.

‘The person who carried us through all of this’

For Cohen and James, however, the significance of the settlement was ultimately personal.

“We brought this case because we wanted the truth to be established and these allegations to be retracted,” they said.

Ending their statement, they paid tribute to their son.

“Our son has also been the person who unknowingly carried us through this nightmare. The joy, love and brightness he brought into our lives cut through some very dark moments.

“However difficult things became, we still had the privilege of getting up every morning and simply being his dads.

“In ways he cannot possibly understand yet, that kept us going.”

They concluded: “Nothing can give us back the time we have lost, nor undo the impact this has had on our family. But the record has now been set straight.

“The allegations were false. The BBC has retracted them in full and apologised unreservedly.

“Today, we can finally begin to move forward.

“The BBC, though, needs to carefully consider and learn from the impact that its reckless journalism has had on a young family’s lives.”

Benjamin Cohen and Anthony James’s joint statement following the settlement can be read in full here.

The Statement in Open Court can be read in full here.

Disclosure: Benjamin Cohen is the founder and CEO of PinkNews and Anthony James is a director and COO. The defamation proceedings were brought by them personally, not by PinkNews.