In October, the royal appeared on Norton’s award-winning talk show to speak about the “Earthshot Prize”, which he set up in 2019.
Norton’s other guests were Cate Blanchett, who is one of 15 members of the “Earthshot Prize Council”, Hannah Waddingham, who has hosted both the Earthshot Prize awards and the “Earthshot Report”, and Robert Irwin, who is a global ambassador for the Earthshot Prize.
After the broadcast, the campaign group Republic – which pushes for the abolition of the monarchy – alleged that the BBC had breached its own broadcasting rules.
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“The show appears to have been co-opted for the promotion of the Earthshot Prize, an independent charity with close ties to William,” the group said.
“The BBC's own guidelines say the corporation must not endorse or support individual charities except for its own official corporate charities, such as Children in Need.”
It went on: “In 2013, the BBC reprimanded Norton and his production company after Norton wore a World AIDS Day ribbon on his show.
“At the time, the BBC said its guidelines meant the corporation ‘must remain independent and distanced from government initiatives, campaigners, charities and their agendas, no matter how apparently worthy the cause or how much their message appears to be accepted or uncontroversial’.”
Graham Smith, the chief executive of Republic, said they would be lodging a formal complaint.
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He said: “The BBC has an appalling track record when it comes to royal partiality. They fawn and celebrate and join in with the royal PR machine. They exercise poor judgement time and again, failing to represent either the monarchy or public attitudes fairly or accurately.
"This latest programme is a case in point. William wants to do this because the royals know the writing is on the wall. They can see the falling polls and they can see the rising voices of opposition."
Now, a BBC complaints report has revealed that the corporation received 292 complaints about it being “inappropriate” to have invited William onto Norton’s show.
The BBC has been asked for a response.
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