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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Cate McCurry

Claim about Adams in BBC programme ‘probably’ not rules breach – media expert

Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams outside the High Court in Dublin, where he is bringing a legal action against the BBC over allegations about the murder of an MI5 spy. Claims were made in a BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight programme in 2016 over who sanctioned the killing of British spy Denis Donaldson. Picture date: Thursday May 15, 2025. - (PA Wire)

A BBC programme which aired a claim that Gerry Adams sanctioned the killing of a spy would “probably” not have breached broadcasting regulations and was not “unfair or unjust”, a media expert has told a court.

Chris Banatvala, who drew up the UK’s broadcasting rules for Ofcom and was its founding director of standards, compiled a report based on a programme which claimed that Mr Adams had sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson.

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