So you used the wrong word.
Berate does not mean to criticise someone severely. It means to criticise someone angrily.
BBC did not berate Naga.
They may have criticised her, in error. They were in turn criticised.
You can't, as an individual, interchange words that you prefer. (Notwithstanding that a corporate, co-operative approach to the changing of meanings of words is normal, as in social constructionism).
