BBC culture reporter Noor Nanji has said her success in investigating allegations made about Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace has shown her “we can expose wrongdoing within our own organisation”.
Nanji (pictured centre above) won the Arts & Entertainment prize at the British Journalism Awards along with BBC colleague Felicity Baker on 11 December.
Wallace stepped down as a BBC presenter after the pair reported that 13 people had accused him of making inappropriate sexual comments in the workplace. He was fired after 50 more people approached the BBC with fresh claims about inappropriate workplace conduct involving the TV presenter.
Speaking to Press Gazette after the win, Nanji said: “Often people don’t take arts journalism that seriously.
“They think of it as the fluff, but I think that category proved… that actually arts and entertainment journalism can be thoroughly investigative, and it can be scoops and hard-hitting journalism.”
Nanji said the investigation was “challenging” because “we were investigating ourselves”.
“So we are BBC News, we are editorially independent from the wider BBC, but nonetheless it can be important to investigate your own organisation.
“So we had to keep that separation when we were looking into this.”
‘Imbalance of power within this industry’
She added another challenge was earning the trust of sources.
“It was difficult because a lot of the people who we eventually ended up hearing from were young, primarily female freelancers working in relatively insecure jobs.
“And to an extent there was a feeling from them that if they spoke up they may then jeopardise their future work prospects. And so we had to win their trust and their confidence over a period of time.”
Nanji and Baker spent four months convincing the initial 13 sources to share their testimony.
Nanji added: “I think that that also goes to the heart of what this story was about, which was that it wasn’t just about the TV presenter, it was about the imbalance of power within this industry and the difficulty for freelancers in the creative industries to speak up when they feel that something’s wrong.
“I think it shows that…we can hold our own organisations to account.
“And I think that for us it felt that we can expose wrongdoing within our own organisation and in fact that’s one of the brilliant things about the BBC is that we do also investigate ourselves. We don’t shy away from having those conversations and I think actually that’s a strength.”
Nanji and Baker’s submitted entries were:
- Gregg Wallace was ‘fascinated by my sex life and made lesbian jokes’
- ‘Groping’ and ‘touching’: Fresh claims against Gregg Wallace
- Gregg Wallace sacked as 50 more people make claims
The British Journalism Awards judges said: “This was a strong exclusive, much followed up, and a great example of a news organisation holding itself to account.”
Last year, Rosamund Urwin and Charlotte Wace won in Arts & Entertainment Journalism for their investigation into allegations against Russell Brand.
See the full list of 2025 British Journalism Awards winners.
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