World class blunder as BBC studio map moves Italy and leaves out Germany
THE BBC has been ridiculed after it put Italy in the wrong place on new world map at studios that had just undergone a £13m revamp.
The map showed an alternative view on European geography
In the astonishing blunder, the huge studio map not only left Germany off completely but put Italy in its place, a few hundred miles north of where it should have been.
The wall chart did manage to position the UK, France and Spain correctly.
Poor Germany were left off the map completely
BBC mistakes cab driver for IT-expert
The embarrassing error was spotted by Tory MP Johnny Mercer as he was given a tour of the new state of the art studio in Plymouth, Devon.
My Italian geography is bad, but not as bad as theirs
The MP for Plymouth Moor View tweeted a photo of the map and said: "Cheered up by this at the shiny new BBC studios in Plymouth.
"My Italian geography is bad, but not as bad as theirs."
The BBC's editorial guidelines boast that accuracy is "fundamental to our reputation".
The BBC pride themselves on accuracy
The new BBC building in Plymouth under construction
The map also shows the Canary Islands as hugely distorted to look much larger than they are in reality.
A spokesperson for the BBC blamed the inaccurate map on a "printing error" and claimed they had already planned for it to be changed before Mr Mercer's intervention.
They said: "We were aware of the printing error and we had already planned for the graphic to be changed at no additional charge."