Complaint
In an interview about lockdown in Scotland the BBC’s Scotland Editor, Sarah Smith, said:
It’s been obvious that Nicola Sturgeon has enjoyed the opportunity to make her own different lockdown rules and not have to follow what’s being done in England and other parts of the UK.
13 viewers complained to the ECU that the use of the phrase “enjoyed the opportunity” represented an inappropriate expression of opinion, indicative of bias against the First Minister of Scotland. The ECU considered the complaints in the light of the BBC’s guidelines on Impartiality, which say:
Our audiences should not be able to tell from BBC output the personal opinions of our journalists or news and current affairs presenters on matters of public policy, political or industrial controversy, or on ‘controversial subjects’ in any other area.
Outcome
The ECU agreed that viewer of the 10pm bulletin might well have formed the impression that Ms Smith was expressing an opinion about Ms Sturgeon’s motives, and that giving such an impression was out of keeping with the BBC’s standards of due impartiality. However, it noted the following sequence of events.
Shortly after the broadcast the First Minister posted a tweet in which she objected to the wording concerned. She said:
Never in my entire political career have I ‘enjoyed’ anything less than this.
In a reply via her BBC Twitter account @BBCsarahsmith Ms Smith offered an explanation and an apology to the First Minister:
I do not believe that @NicolaSturgeon is enjoying this crisis. I had meant to say on the 10 o’clock news that she has ‘embraced’ the opportunity to make a policy unique to Scotland. I said ‘enjoyed’ by mistake. Not suggesting she is enjoying crisis but embracing devolution.
In a further post the following day, she said:
On last night’s News at Ten I said @NicolaSturgeon had ‘enjoyed the opportunity to set her own lockdown rules’. I should have said she was ‘embracing’ the opportunity to set a separate policy for Scotland. I never meant to suggest she is enjoying this crisis. Of course she is not.
Then in a third tweet, she said:
For the avoidance of any doubt. I am sorry that by mistake I said on the news last night that @NicolaSturgeon was ‘enjoying the opportunity’ to set lockdown policy in Scotland. That was not what I meant to say and I apologise to her for my error.
A spokesperson for the BBC said in a statement to the press:
Following complaints received on remarks by Sarah Smith, Sarah has since clarified her remarks, acknowledged where there were errors and has apologised to the First Minister, who has accepted those clarifications and has indicated that she regards the matter as now closed.
The ECU also noted that, in a similar interview in the 6pm BBC One bulletin on 18 May, Ms Smith had said:
It’s been obvious how Nicola Sturgeon has embraced the opportunity to make her own different lockdown rules and not have to follow what’s being down in England the other UK nations.
The ECU regarded the word “embraced” as a term which described the First Minister’s approach without imputing motive, and viewed its use in this earlier bulletin as corroborating Ms Smith’s statement that she had simply misspoken in her later interview, rather than offering an opinion on the First Minister’s state of mind. The ECU agreed that it had been appropriate to issue apologies and that, although it would be more usual for apologies for an error on air to be broadcast rather than offered via Twitter, the fact that the First Minister had registered her objection in a tweet made a BBC Twitter account (supplemented as it was by a press statement) a more appropriate medium in this instance. The ECU therefore found that the action taken was sufficient to resolve the issue of editorial standards raised by the complaints.
Resolved