BBC’s disinformation correspondent and chief fact-checker Marianna Spring is accused of lying on her CV by falsely claiming to have worked with a Beeb journalist when applying for a job in Moscow

• BBC disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring alleged to have lied on CV
• She reportedly claimed to have said she worked with BBC’s Sarah Rainsford

The BBC’s disinformation correspondent is facing claims that she lied about her experience on her CV.

Marianna Spring, who has shot to prominence with her reporting on the way social media has been used to peddle false information, is facing the embarrassing allegation that she gave misleading information to try to secure work.

According to a report, about five years ago Ms Spring was trying to get work as a freelancer in Moscow for US-based news site Coda Story, when the misleading claim was made.

An article in The New European said that when she applied to the website’s editor-in-chief Natalia Antelava in 2018, Ms Spring claimed she had worked alongside BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford on covering the ‘perception of Russia’ during the 2018 football World Cup.

Her CV reportedly bragged: ‘June 2018: Reported on International News during the World Cup, specifically the perception of Russia, with BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford.’

Questions: BBC News disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring

Marianna Spring , who has shot to prominence with her reporting on the way social media has been used to peddle false information , is facing the embarrassing allegation that she gave misleading information to try to secure work

According to The New European, Ms Antelava, a former BBC journalist herself, is said to have rebuked Ms Spring, who is now 27, after checking out the claim.

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Ms Spring is said to have sent an email apologising for her ‘awful misjudgment’.

She is said to have written: ‘I’ve only bumped into Sarah whilst she’s working and chatted to her at various points, but nothing more. Everything else on my CV is entirely true.’

The young journalist added that she was a ‘brilliant reporter’ and in their emails also admitted there was ‘no excuse’.

She said her only explanation was her ‘desperation to report out in Moscow’ and thinking it would ‘wouldn’t be a big deal’, which she admitted was ‘naïve and stupid’.

In the email exchange published by The New European, Ms Antelava told her: ‘Telling me you are a brilliant reporter who exercises integrity and honesty when you have literally demonstrated the opposite was a terrible idea.’

The Coda Story boss, who is understood to have not proceeded with the job application, is said to have added: ‘I am sure if you use this as a lesson, things will work out.’

Ms Spring, who was promoted to her disinformation and social media correspondent title in August last year, has worked for Panorama and has her own BBC podcast called Marianna In Conspiracyland.

She is part of the BBC Verify team tasked with fact-checking, countering disinformation and ‘explaining complex stories in the pursuit of truth’.

The BBC declined to comment this evening.

An article in The New European said that when she applied to the website’s editor-in-chief Natalia Antelava in 2018, Ms Spring claimed she had worked alongside BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford (pictured) on covering the ‘perception of Russia’ during the 2018 football World Cup

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