{"id":321262,"date":"2026-01-07T08:38:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T08:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=321262"},"modified":"2026-01-08T07:42:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:42:25","slug":"bbc-bans-journalists-from-saying-us-kidnapped-maduro-leaked-email-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=321262","title":{"rendered":"BBC &#8216;bans&#8217; journalists from saying US &#8216;kidnapped&#8217; Maduro, leaked email shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Xander Elliards \u2013 Yahoo News Jan 5, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><strong>THE BBC has told its reporters not to use the word \u201ckidnapped\u201d when describing the US government\u2019s allegedly illegal abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The directive was revealed by The National contributor Owen Jones, who said it had been passed to him by a member of BBC staff.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">BBC journalists have been banned from describing the kidnapped Venezuelan leader as having been kidnapped.<\/p>\n<p>The BBC News Editor has sent this to BBC journalists. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jn9qQZkVAH\">pic.twitter.com\/jn9qQZkVAH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/owenjonesjourno\/status\/2008166331552514466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 5, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>It read: \u201cAs discussed in the Nine [a daily 9am meeting of BBC staff] to ensure clarity and consistency in our reporting, please follow these guidelines when describing the recent events in Venezuela:<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018Captured\u2019 \u2013 Please attribute this to the US description of the operation. Example: \u2018The US said Maduro was captured during the operation.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018Seized\u2019 \u2013 Acceptable for use in our own reporting where appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAvoid using \u2018Kidnapped\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThanks for keeping this in mind as you work on related stories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It comes despite US president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/topics\/donald-trump\/?ref=au\">Donald Trump<\/a> explicitly saying that the word \u201ckidnapping\u201d could be used to describe the military operation.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodriguez saying Maduro had been &#8220;kidnapped&#8221;, Trump said: \u201cIt\u2019s alright. It\u2019s not a bad term.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sharing the BBC directive on social media, Jones said: \u201cBBC journalists have been banned from describing the kidnapped Venezuelan leader as having been kidnapped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe BBC News editor has sent this to BBC journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scottish historian William Dalrymple said in response that the BBC \u201cbeggars belief\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were both taken by US forces.<\/p>\n<p>The Oxford English Dictionary defines kidnapping as: \u201cTo carry off (a person) by illegal force.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/national\/25737260.uk-not-involved-way-strike-venezuela-starmer-says\/?ref=ed_direct\">UK Government has declined<\/a> to state that the extra-judicial capture of Maduro by the US administration is in breach of international law.<\/p>\n<p>UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said he was &#8220;deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected&#8221;, while nations including France, Brazil, and Norway said the US had breached the law.<\/p>\n<p>In Scotland, First Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/24575066.john-swinney-news-updates-information-first-minister\/?ref=au\">John Swinney<\/a> has said he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/national\/25740214.trump-breached-international-law-venezuela-operation-suggests-swinney\/?ref=ed_direct\">cannot see how the operation was within the bounds of legality.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The BBC has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.news.yahoo.com\/bbc-bans-journalists-saying-us-160449544.html?guccounter=2\">Source<\/a>\u00a0<em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC News editors instruct journalists to avoid describing Venezuelan President Maduro\u2019s abduction as a \u2018kidnapping\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":276617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-controlling-the-news-andor-the-free-exchange-of-ideas-and-information","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321262"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321298,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321262\/revisions\/321298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/276617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}