The BBC is launching an internal investigation over the recently leaked footage of Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson’s racist remark.
The investigation has seen TV bosses looking into whether or not the show’s employees believe that it is racist, and determining if its crew have been “afraid” of speaking out of fear of a negative backlash from the company.
Clarkson has also been placed on his final warning, with the BBC reportedly set to axe him from his position on the hugely popular TV series if he continues to disobey the “conduct expected of them him as a BBC employee.”
The investigation was launched following uproar over a leaked video of him reciting a seemingly racist rhyme, which can be viewed below:
The surfacing of the footage immediately led to calls for him to be fired from the BBC, with Ofcom then highlighting another racist remark made by the presenter in Top Gear‘s Burma special, in which he said that a bridge had a “slope” on it, in reference to an Asian passerby.
Many feel that the leaking of the Clarkson’s muttering of the “n word” was a quiet protest from one of Top Gear’s members of staff, who were perhaps afraid to publicly speak out against the host.
Clarkson later released a grovelling apology, in which he claimed that the word he seemingly used in the leaked video was a word he “loathes”, before reading a letter he had sent to the production office requesting that they didn’t include the video clip in the show.
A report was launched in June, with it taking a reported four to six weeks to complete. The details of the investigation are still being finalised, and it is uncertain when the BBC will reveal the results of their findings.
[Via The Guardian]
Photo: Getty Images
