Loose Women host Charlene White began Tuesday's show with a strong warning to people speculating online about the identity of the BBC presenter allegedly involved in a sexual images scandal, urging them to think before they type as their words could have costly consequences.
It was towards the end of last week, that reports first surfaced that a high profile star at the BBC had been accused of paying £35,000 for explicit images of a then teenager, with the 20-year-old's family raising their concerns to a national newspaper, who in turn went to the broadcaster with what they'd been told.
Over the last few days, several big name BBC stars have issued very public denials to clear their name, including Gary Lineker, Rylan Clark, Jeremy Vine and Nicky Campbell, with Vine and Campbell both threatening legal action against those people linking their names to the allegations, with Campbell also going to the ;police after being left furious by tweets about him.
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BBC sources claim the corporation's attention was first drawn to the allegations against the presenter back in May, before issues of 'a different nature' came to light on Thursday. And then on Monday, lawyers representing the 20-year-old said allegations made against the star were not true.
The identity of the presenter allegedly involved in the scandal has still to be revealed, but that hasn't stopped social media users from speculating and making claims against various BBC personalities on platforms like Twitter. And journalist Charlene, who through her profession us well aware of the consequences of libel and defamation, fired a warning at those continuing to speculate, who may be unaware that the price they may ultimately end up paying for their actions.
Addressing her Loose Women colleagues, Charlene remarked: "One thing we need to be very mindful of, is this the difference between gossip, that cam get you into trouble," before turning to Janet Street-Porter and saying: "You know, you're a journalist I am:; we were very, very well educated in the rules and the media laws on defamation and libel and there a lot of people who are talking about this online who are clearly very unaware of the rules and need to understand that they can get themselves in trouble.
Janet responded: "But they don't care, that's the problem," as Charlene added: "Well, when a layer's letter lands on their doorstep and they're going to have to fork out a lot of the hard earned money, maybe they'll learn that there's a difference between the two.2
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