Michael Buerk slams BBC for protection of ‘drugged up faded boy band singer’ Liam Payne in Radio 4 interview

Veteran foreign correspondent Michael Buerk has expressed his disapproval of the BBC’s extensive coverage of Liam Payne’s death.

The BBC journalist, 78, known for his landmark 1984 Six O’Clock News bulletin about the famine in Ethiopia that triggered the release of the charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas”, and Bob Geldof’s 16-hour music marathon Live Aid, described Payne as a “drugged up, faded, boy band singer”.

Payne’s death at the age of 31 dominated news headlines after the One Direction star fell from a third story hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 16 October. Multiple substances, including pink cocaine, were allegedly found in toxicology reports, though the Public Prosecutors Office say the analysis is not yet completed.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Buerk claimed Payne’s death should not have been of such interest to any of the BBC news programmes, including Today and the 10 O’Clock News.

When asked how foreign reporting has changed since his Ethiopia report, the broadcaster said there was “more of an appetite for seriousness” at the height of his career and slammed the channel’s interest in Payne’s death.

“Last week, this programme decided that the most important thing that had happened in the world was that a drugged up faded boy band singer had fallen off a balcony,” he said.

“Even the 10 O’clock News, which is normally good on these things, thought it was the second most important thing that happened in the world.”

Buerk continued: “If you look at the news these days, they seem to be hammering away at the same half dozen stories while a whole continent goes unmentioned month after month.”

Listeners were shocked by the broadcaster’s comments. “Blimey,” one person wrote on X/Twitter. “He seemed so… disdainful.

“There was no need for him to be so dismissive, it just felt sneery,” they added.

Payne rose to fame as a member of One Direction, one of the most popular boy bands in history. The group was formed on reality competition series The X Factor in 2010, where Payne, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson each auditioned as solo acts before joining the five-piece group.

The singer was pronounced dead on October 16, after emergency services responded to a hotel manager’s call about an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”

The 911 call was made at 5:01pm local time, shortly before Payne’s death around 10 minutes later. The hotel employee told the operator that emergency services were needed “urgently,” noting that the hotel room had a balcony.

“We need you to send us someone urgently because, well, we don’t know if the guest’s life is at risk,” they said. “He is in a room that has a balcony. And well, we’re a bit afraid that he does something that could put his life at risk.”

Alberto Crescenti, head of the local emergency services, told Buenos Aires Times that “there was no possibility” for first responders to save Payne’s life as he had “very serious injuries.”

Buenos Aires police later found Payne’s hotel room “in complete disarray,” with packs of clonazepam, a central nervous system depressant, as well as energy supplements and other over-the-counter drugs strewn about and “various items broken.”

They added that a whiskey bottle, lighter, and cell phone were retrieved from the internal hotel courtyard where Payne’s body was found.

In a statement issued by Payne’s spokeswoman, his family said: “We are heartbroken. Liam will forever live in our hearts and we’ll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul. We are supporting each other the best we can as a family and ask for privacy and space at this awful time.”