Monday, December 12, 2011

BBC Lied Over Polar Bear Births

Scenes from the BBC’s landmark Frozen Planet series, which viewers believed were filmed in the Arctic, were shot in a zoo, it emerged last night.

In the latest fakery row to hit the Corporation, footage of a polar bear cub being born was filmed in a man-made den in a German animal park.

But the accompanying voiceover from Sir David Attenborough referred to cubs being born “beneath the snow” and the footage was intercut with scenes of polar bears in the wild.

The truth about the sequence was not disclosed in the programme. Only viewers who visited the Frozen Planet website and stumbled across a video by the producer, Kathryn Jeffs, would have learned that they had been watching bears in captivity.

Today Sir David, 85, refused to comment on the revelation. Asked whether he thought the clip may have misled viewers, he said as he left his house: "I'm in a real rush, I've got to go."

Last night the BBC said the script was “carefully worded” and did not mislead the audience.

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