Complaint
A listener complained that a presenter had shown discourtesy and hostility during an interview about food shortages in Gaza by calling the interviewee, an Israeli government spokesman, a 鈥渟killed propagandist鈥, and that this contrasted with his handling of a preceding interview with a representative of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, where he let the fact that she had not answered one of his questions pass without comment. The ECU assessed whether the programme had met the 91福利社鈥檚 Guidelines on impartiality.
Outcome
The remark in question followed an exchange in which the Israeli government spokesman had suggested journalists in Gaza who had reported on cases of starvation were acting on behalf of Hamas. Whilst the ECU accepted the presenter could have used a more neutral form of words, it considered in context listeners in general would have understood that he was reminding the interviewee that his role was not that of a disinterested observer but a government spokesman. The ECU noted that, at the point in the preceding interview where the interviewee had not given a direct answer to the presenter鈥檚 question, the answer she did give was germane to the main topic of the interview. It did not consider the presenter鈥檚 decision to continue to focus on that topic rather than pressing the interviewee on a less relevant point was evidence of bias.
Not Upheld