BBC journalist in hot water for accidentally killing off the Queen on Twitter
BBC journalist Ahmen Khawaja is facing internal disciplinary action for erroneously tweeting that Queen Elizabeth II had passed away. Khawaja who works for BBC affiliate BBC Urdu had first tweeted that the Queen was being treated at King Edward VII Hospital, and had died soon thereafter. She has since then deleted her previous tweets and tried to pass it off as a prank.
False Alarm: Have deleted previous tweets!!
— Ahmen Khawaja (@AhmenKhawaja) June 3, 2015
But not before other major news affliates ran with and had to later retract the story themselves.
Affiliates, please disregard our previous tweet about Queen Elizabeth. It was sent in error.
— CNN Newsource (@CNNNewsource) June 3, 2015
Queen nicht im Krankenhaus. Buckingham Palast gibt bekannt, dass die Nachricht falsch ist.
— BILD (@BILD) June 3, 2015
The BBC has since claimed that it wasn’t a prank. According to CNN Money, a BBC spokeswoman has said tweets were sent out accidentally from Khawaja’s personal account during a “technical rehearsal for an obituary.” The Queen incidentally was at King Edward VII Hospital for a routine annual checkup and appears to be in fine health.