The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club. The first rule of journalism is: do not tweet the Queen is dead, when the Queen is not dead.
BBC Broadcast journalist, Ahmen Khawaja, did just that when she tweeted: 'Queen Elizabeth has died: @BBCWorld'. The reporter made the tweet when she was watching a routine rehearsal in the BBC studio of staff preparing for the Queen's death and believed it to be the real deal.
The BBC hold regular rehearsals for the Queen's death for when the real announcement is made to ensure staff follow procedures and report appropriately. It was during one of these rehearsals when Ahmen announced to the world the Queen had died. Ahmen followed the initial mistake with a follow-up tweet stating the Queen was being treated at King Edward VII Hospital.
The allegation forced Buckingham Palace to announce the Queen's routine appointment in a statement by a spokesperson: 'I can confirm that The Queen this morning attended her annual medical check-up at the King Edward VII Hospital in London. This was a routine, pre-scheduled appointment. The Queen has now left the hospital.'
The BBC was forced to apologise for the misinformation: 'during a technical rehearsal for an obituary, tweets were mistakenly sent from the account of a BBC journalist saying that a member of the Royal Family had been taken ill. The tweets were swiftly deleted and we apologise for any offence.'
False Alarm: Have deleted previous tweets!!
— Ahmen Khawaja (@AhmenKhawaja) June 3, 2015Ahmen will now be facing disciplinary actions from the BBC because of the blunder. She has since deleted the tweets and apologised.
