Naga Munchetty says ‘lessons have been learned’ after controversy about on-air Donald Trump comments

Presenter says she is not ‘a victim in any shape or form’

Naga Munchetty has said “lessons have been learned” following controversy about comments she made about Donald Trump during a live broadcast.

The BBC Breakfast presenter told The Guardian she had had “very robust” conversations with senior figures at the broadcaster over the incident.

Ms Munchetty was previously judged to have breached BBC editorial guidelines when last year she discussed comments made by the US president after he told female Democrats to “go back” to their own countries.

In the broadcast on 17 July, Ms Munchetty said ”every time I have been told, as a woman of colour, to go back to where I came from, that was embedded in racism”.

She added: ”I’m not accusing anyone of anything here, but you know what certain phrases mean.”

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The ruling was later reviewed and reversed by the corporation’s director-general, Lord Tony Hall.

Ms Munchetty told The Guardian she is not “a victim in any shape or form”.

She added: “I think lessons have been learned and things are improving. We’re learning all the time – the BBC learns, I learn, move on.”

The presenter said that while “as journalists, you are taught to bring balance to everything we do”, she also felt “a responsibility to show that certain things are not acceptable”.

In a letter sent to staff last year by Lord Hall after he reversed the ruling that Ms Munchetty had breached editorial guidelines, he said “racism is racism and the BBC is not impartial on the topic”.