Complaint
A listener objected to a reference in an interview to the number of children being killed in Gaza, claiming the figure used was an exaggeration. The ECU considered the broadcast against the standards for accuracy set out in the Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
The interview did not look in depth at civilian casualties in Gaza, but mentioned them in passing during a discussion on Israel鈥檚 military action in Lebanon and what might happen next. In the ECU鈥檚 view the reference to 鈥渢ens of thousands are dead, a huge proportion of them children鈥 was unlikely to be understood as a literal account of the number of dead. Rather it was clearly intended by the presenter to indicate the relatively high death toll among young people compared to other conflicts.
Not Upheld