BBC News’ editorial director, Kamal Ahmed, told staff that an incident in which a reporter used the N-word on air had left black colleagues feeling that progress made on diversity in recent years had been undermined. Some BBC News employees asked their bosses on a private call what the point was of staying with the corporation, as they looked for reassurance that it was improving its reporting on race. Many were upset that it had taken the resignation of the Radio 1Xtra presenter Sideman to force the BBC’s hand. The director general, Tony Hall, issued a formal apology nine days after the broadcast amid fears of further resignations over the issue. Staff on the call, who were variously described as “exasperated” and “very emotional”, also expressed strong concerns about the role of the BBC’s editorial policy unit, which approved the original decision to broadcast the language. The unit is led by David Jordan, the director of editorial policy and standards, who previously defended the BBC when it censured Naga Munchetty last autumn for expressing a personal view on racist comments made by Donald Trump. Hall overturned that decision following a lengthy internal and external debate about attitudes towards race at the corporation, and Jordan has become a focus of discontent among some staff, gaining a reputation for trying to ensure that the BBC’s output is not excessively “woke”. The BBC has struggled to balance its attempts to diversify its staff and ensure its output represents the concerns of Britons from a BAME background with its attempts to maintain an editorial code that requires due impartiality from its reporters both on air and on social media. Following the Black Lives Matter protests this summer, the corporation issued a statement to news staff insisting that “the BBC is not impartial on racism”, while also emphasising that they should avoid making public displays of support for Black Lives Matter as a movement and avoid attending public protests. Hall is also expected to confirm new restrictions on the use of racist language in the BBC’s broadcasts before he leaves the corporation at the start of September. At the moment, only three common swear words require the sign-off of senior management before going on air. Everything else, including racist language, is left to the discretion of individual programme editors. The N-word was used in a report on an alleged racist hit-and-run incident in Bristol. It is understood that two different versions of the report were originally cut for the regional Points West news bulletin, one featuring the word and one without. Points West’s editors approved the version featuring the word following a discussion with a member of the editorial standards team, and the corporation has said the victim’s family approved the use of the language to emphasise the severity of the attack. It was only when the report was broadcast on the national BBC News channel the following morning that it attracted widespread attention, attracting 18,000 complaints from members of the public.