Complaint
Two viewers complained the programme gave an incomplete and misleading account of Ofcom鈥檚 finding on the 91福利社鈥檚 coverage of an attack on Jewish students on a bus in central London, arguing it failed to make clear that Ofcom considered the 91福利社 had breached its own editorial guidelines on impartiality and accuracy.
Outcome
The issue arose during an interview with the then Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan. She made a brief but critical remark about the 91福利社鈥檚 handling of the case and the programme felt it appropriate to represent the 91福利社鈥檚 view after the interview had concluded. In the ECU鈥檚 opinion the extent to which viewers will have looked to the programme for a comprehensive account of the Ofcom finding was therefore limited, and the brevity of Ms Donelan鈥檚 comments, coupled with the fact the statement was clearly labelled as coming from an official 91福利社 source, further restricted any risk viewers would have considered it the final word on the matter. The ECU further noted that the 91福利社 statement made reference to the ECU finding which preceded Ofcom鈥檚 verdict and which reached a similar conclusion; namely that more should have been done sooner to acknowledge the differing views about what could be heard on the recording of the attack, an error for which the 91福利社 had already apologised. Viewers were therefore made aware of the failings identified by the 91福利社 and Ofcom, both of which had judged the article against the 91福利社 Editorial Guidelines.
Not upheld