After another week in which the BBC has had to report on the conduct of one of its own high-profile journalists, Northern Irish presenter Stephen Nolan has apologised, following allegations that he shared sexually explicit photographs of a possible guest with his colleagues.
Earlier this week, the Irish News published claims that Nolan, one of the BBC’s highest paid journalists, had shared two images of reality TV personality Stephen Bear with his production team back in 2016.
The BBC now reports that Nolan addressed the allegations in his Radio Ulster show on Friday morning, when he said:
“We have had days, as you probably know, of headlines about me and the Nolan team in the papers this week and I am not ignoring the story,” he said.
“It’s just that the BBC has processes in place to deal with staff complaints and I do, and need to, totally respect those processes. They have got to be confidential for them to work.
“I can say one thing though and that is that I’m sorry.
“There was a photograph, it was widely available on the internet and I was talking to a long-term friend and peer outside of work. I am deeply sorry.”
On the same day he took to X, formally Twitter, to deny another claim made this week in the Irish News, that fake guests had been placed in the audience of his show, saying:
There have been other headlines, too, including a suggestion that we manipulate programmes by planting staff in the studio audience. I can speak about that on the record. That is completely, categorically false. We don’t do that in the Nolan team. We value our relationship with you far too much to compromise it.”
BBC Northern Ireland’s chief has sent an email to the Irish News to request “an immediate apology and retraction” for the claim, which he also denies.