The Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy has been taken off air for a week after he was caught making an offensive comment off-camera about the Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker.
During an off-air moment after his exchange with Baker on Wednesday, Guru-Murthy was heard to say: “What a cunt.”
He will not now return to Channel 4 News before 4 November, due to a pre-existing week of leave, the broadcaster said.
In a statement published on Thursday, Channel 4 said: “Channel 4 has a strict code of conduct for all its employees, including its programming teams and on-air presenters, and takes any breaches seriously.
“Following an off-air incident, Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy has been taken off air for a week.”
After the incident, Guru-Murthy apologised to Baker on Twitter.
He wrote: “After a robust interview with Steve Baker MP I used a very offensive word in an unguarded moment off air.
“While it was not broadcast, that word in any context is beneath the standards I set myself and I apologise unreservedly.
“I have reached out to Steve Baker to say sorry.”
In an interview with Times Radio, Baker said that sacking Guru-Murthy would be a “service to the public” if he was found to be in breach of his code of conduct.
“I had an interview earlier with a journalist I don’t have a great deal of regard for who I felt was misrepresenting the situation through the construction of his question, which I called out, I think live on air, or I thought it was a pre-record,” he said.
“And he clearly didn’t like that, quite right, too. But I’d be quite honest, I spent a long time live on air, calling him out on his conduct as a journalist and glad to do so any time.
“But it’s most unfortunate that he’s sworn on air like that. If it’s in breach of his code of conduct, I do hope they sack him – it would be a service to the public.”
Baker later replied to Guru-Murthy’s tweet, accepting the apology and saying he “appreciated” the gesture.
