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Programme Complaints Appeals to the Governors November 2006 Issued January 2007 Programme Complaints Appeals to the Governors The Board of Governors is responsible for overseeing the running of the BBC, to ensure that the BBC serves the public interest. We do this in a range of ways, such as setting key objectives and approving strategy and policy. Most importantly for this bulletin, we are responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of complaints handling by the BBC, including hearing appeals from complainants who are not happy with the responses they have received from management to serious programme complaints. The Governors’ Programme Complaints Committee is a subcommittee of four members drawn from the full Board of Governors. For a full account of our remit, please see the last page of this bulletin. BBC Programme Complaints: Appeals to the Governors Page 2 Foreword by the Acting Chairman of the Governors’ Programme Complaints Committee It is the job of the Governors’ Programme Complaints Committee (GPCC) to ensure that complaints are properly handled by the BBC. This includes taking appeals from individuals dissatisfied with management’s response to serious editorial complaints. We review the programme or online content against the BBC’s editorial values and guidelines, and make a judgement on whether or not the content concerned has breached the standards set out. Fabian Monds Acting Chairman of the Governors’ Programme Complaints Committee BBC Programme Complaints: Appeals to the Governors Page 3 Contents Page Summary of findings (November 2006) Appeals not upheld Today, Radio 4, 31 July 2006 5 10 O’Clock News, BBC One, 5 January 2006 8 10 O’Clock News, BBC One, 9 January 2006 11 Remit of the Governors’ Programme Complaints Committee 14 BBC Programme Complaints: Appeals to the Governors Page 4 Summary of findings (November 2006) Appeals not upheld Today BBC Radio 4, 31 July 2006 a) The programme This edition of Today was broadcast the day after the Israeli attack on the southern Lebanese town of Qana, where 28 people were killed, more than half of them children. One of the main headlines of the day was that Israel had agreed to suspend air strikes on Southern Lebanon for 48 hours in the wake of the attack. During the programme, Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen provided a review of the Lebanese newspapers from Beirut. b) The complaint The complainant felt that the Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, attacked Israel during his summary of the Lebanese newspapers. She believed this breached the BBC’s Charter responsibilities in the following ways: · Mr Bowen read out an extremely long editorial from the Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star, which included an accusation that Israel was inflicting a holocaust on the Lebanese people. · Mr Bowen quoted the anti-Semitic article at extreme length and, therefore, went completely “over the top”, thereby abusing his position. · Mr Bowen appeared to personally endorse the views of the article by reading from it at the end of his review, adding no further comment or commentary objecting to its “racist view”. · The “venom in his voice” showed agreement with the article. The Head of the Editorial Complaints Unit did not uphold the complaint and the complainant appealed to the Governors’ Programme Complaints Committee. c) Applicable programme standards Extracts from BBC Editorial Guidelines: Section 3 – Accuracy The BBC’s commitment to accuracy is a core editorial value and fundamental to our reputation. Our output must be well sourced, based on sound evidence, thoroughly tested and presented in clear, precise language. We should be honest and open about what we don’t know and avoid unfounded speculation. For the BBC accuracy is more important than speed and it is often more than a question of getting the facts right. All the relevant facts and information should be weighed to get at the truth. If an issue is controversial, relevant opinions as well as facts may need to be considered. BBC Programme Complaints: Appeals to the Governors Page 5 Section 4 – Impartiality & Diversity of Opinion Impartiality lies at the heart of the BBC’s commitment to its audiences. It applies across all of our services and output, whatever the format, from radio news bulletins via our web sites to our commercial magazines and includes a commitment to reflecting a diversity of opinion. The Agreement accompanying the BBC’s Charter requires us to produce comprehensive, authoritative and impartial coverage of news and current affairs in the UK and throughout the world to support fair and informed debate. It specifies that we should do all we can to treat controversial subjects with due accuracy and impartiality in our news services and other programmes dealing with matters of public policy or of political or industrial controversy. It also states that the BBC is forbidden from expressing an opinion on current affairs or matters of public policy other than broadcasting. In practice, our commitment to impartiality means: · we strive to reflect a wide range of opinion and explore a range and conflict of views so that no significant strand of thought is knowingly unreflected or under represented. · we must ensure we avoid bias or an imbalance of views on controversial subjects. · we can explore or report on a specific aspect of an issue or provide an opportunity for a single view to be expressed, but in doing so we do not misrepresent opposing views. They may require a right of reply. · the approach to, and tone of, BBC stories must always reflect our editorial values. Presenters, reporters and correspondents are the public face and voice of the BBC, they can have a significant impact on the perceptions of our impartiality. · our journalists and presenters, including those in news and current affairs, may provide professional judgments but may not express personal opinions on matters of public policy or political or industrial controversy. Our audiences should not be able to tell from BBC programmes or other BBC output the personal views of our journalists and presenters on such matters. Achieving impartiality Impartiality is described in the Agreement as “due impartiality”. It requires us to be fair and open minded when examining the evidence and weighing all the material facts, as well as being objective and even handed in our approach to a subject. It does not require the representation of every argument or facet of every argument on every occasion or an equal division of time for each view. News, in whatever form, must be presented with due impartiality. d) The Committee’s decision The Committee considered the complaint against the relevant editorial guidelines, taking into account all the material relating to the case. The Committee noted the timing of the broadcast, which was the morning after the Israeli attack on Qana. It felt there was therefore a clear editorial justification for the newspaper review to come from Lebanon. Jeremy Bowen, as the BBC’s Middle East Editor and in Beirut at that time, was an appropriate choice of presenter for the review of the Lebanese papers. The Committee then went on to consider how Jeremy Bowen had delivered the review and whether by his tone and approach to the piece the audience could have believed he was expressing a personal opinion. It was satisfied that throughout the piece his approach and delivery BBC Programme Complaints: Appeals to the Governors Page 6 had been measured and even, and that the broadcast did not lead the Committee to think that he was expressing a personal opinion. The Committee was also satisfied that Jeremy Bowen had begun the review by setting out the context of what had happened over the last 24 hours, including the news of the Israeli suspension of air strikes. It noted his introduction to the review: “Morning. Well, Lebanon’s papers are published in French, English and Arabic – a reflection of the rich culture of this country – but that news, about Israel suspending air operations, came too late for most of them. There’s some, a couple of mentions that it’s happened, but it’s too late for any comment. So this morning all the papers are dominated by the killings in Qana.” It felt that by stating what the newspapers had been able to cover, Jeremy Bowen had appropriately set the context of their content. The Committee then considered Jeremy Bowen’s specific review of the Daily Star’s editorial. It acknowledged that 40 seconds was quite a substantial amount of time to spend on one newspaper editorial. However, the Committee noted that this only represented about a fifth of the Daily Star’s editorial, and was acceptable in terms of allowing the listener to evaluate its content. The Committee agreed that the editorial used sensitive language, but was satisfied that Bowen had only reported what had been said and that this was an important part of the review. Finally, the Committee considered the complainant’s view that Jeremy Bowen should have distanced himself from the views expressed in the editorial. It was satisfied that there was no need for Mr Bowen to have said more than he did. The Committee was satisfied that Bowen’s introduction to the editorial, where he stated “Now, lastly, I’ve got in front of me The Daily Star, which is the English language paper ... and the editorial is very strong”, provided sufficient indication of its content, and of the fact that it was not BBC content, without it undermining his or the BBC’s position on impartiality. In conclusion, the Committee was satisfied that there was a clear editorial justification for the review and the inclusion of the Daily Star’s editorial. It acknowledged that some of the audience would be sensitive to the editorial’s language but that Bowen had shown understanding of that by warning of its content.
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