‘Disgraceful’ - BBC use Irish tricolour in report on COVID-19 travel restrictions in Northern Ireland
The BBC has been forced to apologise after it used the Irish tricolour in a report on the travel restrictions currently in place in Northern Ireland.
BBC Breakfast used the flag in a piece explaining the different COVID-19 travel restrictions in all four nations in the United Kingdom.
“We would like to apologise for a mistake we made earlier in the programme,” said BBC Breakfast presenter, Naga Munchetty.
“In a graphic sequence explaining the different travel quarantine rules around the nations of the UK we mistakenly showed the wrong flag for Northern Ireland,” she added.
The DUP described the incident as “disgraceful”.
“At 08:11 a graphic was used by @BBCBreakfast wrongly representing NI with an RoI flag,” tweeted the DUP.
“North Antrim MP Ian Paisley emailed the Director General and demanded an immediate apology.
“The apology at 08:58 is welcome but disgraceful that it had to be highlighted.”