The hoo-ha over the reversal of footage of the Queen and Annie Liebovitz reminded me of a far, far more serious incident, more than 20 years ago, to which the BBC management barely reacted – the reversal of footage of miners and the police at the “battle of Orgreave” on 18 June 1984.

The BBC showed film of miners throwing objects at the police, and then of mounted police charging the miners. But actually it happened the other way round. The BBC falsely portrayed the miners as aggressors.

I’ve written to the Guardian, and to Mark Thompson, the BBC director general. Click the links for more information.

Simon Pirani,
Editor, The Miner, 1990-95

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,2134594,00.html

 http://www.quintessential.org.uk/SimonPirani/bbc.html