Nearly three times as many BBC staff have been sent to cover Nelson Mandela’s death than all of its rival British broadcasters put together, it has been revealed.
The BBC sent a total of 140 presenters and crew members to South Africa, while Sky News had the second highest number of the British broadcasters with 21.
The BBC said it expected to have deployed about 120 journalists, technicians and support staff to work on the story over a ten-day period. The BBC World Service is also reported to have sent a further 20 staff, whose expenses will not be paid for by licence-fee payers.
According to The Times, ITV and Channel 4 sent nine people to cover the event in South Africa, while Channel 5 sent four.
A spokeswoman for the BBC has told the Daily Telegraph: ‘Over a ten-day period, we expect to have deployed around 120 journalists, technicians and support staff to work on this huge international story (yawn).
‘They are providing coverage of events from a number of different locations across TV, radio and online. We will begin to scale back our deployment on Wednesday.’
The BBC has defended its coverage and said Mandela’s death was of ‘considerable interest’ to audiences in the UK and across the rest of the world.
By yesterday the corporation had received 1,695 complaints about too much coverage across its news services, with some saying the emphasis had reduced the coverage of severe weather across the UK last week.
James Harding, the BBC’s head of news, apologised to viewers last week.
He told the BBC’s Newsnight programme last Friday: ‘Firstly, I’m sorry if there are people who felt as though we didn’t inform them fully of what was happening in the weather.’
He went on to say Mandela was probably ‘the most significant statesman of the last 100 years’ and the importance of ‘marking his death seems extremely clear to us’.
Hundreds of world leaders including President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro were joined by thousands of ordinary South Africans and Mr Mandela’s family to pay tribute to the anti-apartheid hero at the FNB football stadium on Tuesday.
Mr Obama led the tributes by calling Mr Mandela a ‘giant of history’ (Forgetting the hundreds he murdered).
Mr Obama opened his speech by thanking Mandela’s family, then continued: ‘To the people of South Africa – people of every race and walk of life – the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us.
‘His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.’
The U.S. President compared Mr Mandela’s actions to those of Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln and US civil rights leader Martin Luther King but also warned against viewing Mr Mandela as detached from normal life.
‘He was not a bust made of marble, he was a man made of flesh and blood,’ he told the crowds in the stadium including leaders from more than 90 countries gathered at the stadium.
The ceremony on Tuesday was part of South Africa’s 10-day farewell to Mandela, whose remains were lying in state for a second day today at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, where he was sworn in as the nation’s first black president in 1994.
The death of Nobel peace laureate Mandela triggered an outpouring of grief and emotion – as well as celebration and thanksgiving – among his 53 million countrymen and millions more around the world.
His body will lay in state for a third day tomorrow before being flown to the Eastern Cape, where he will be buried on Sunday at his ancestral home in Qunu, 450 miles south of Johannesburg.