Complaint
A viewer who had seen footage of Boris Johnson’s arrival at St Paul’s Cathedral for the Platinum Jubilee service both in BBC One’s special programme on the event and in the 6pm News complained that, in the soundtrack of the latter, cheering had been changed to booing in an act of “deliberate manipulation…to suit the BBC’s own narrative”. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality.
Outcome
The soundtrack was genuine, but not from the camera used in the relevant sequence of the BBC One special. As explained in an earlier response to the complainant, many cameras had been used to cover the event. While it was true that booing was more prominent in the 6pm report than in the corresponding sequence of the BBC One special, the ECU noted that it was similar to the soundtrack from the camera used at the same point in the BBC News Channel’s live coverage, which was better-placed to pick up sound from the crowd. The fact that Mr Johnson had been met by a negative reaction from parts of the crowd had been reported across the media, including in outlets normally supportive of him. The ECU saw no grounds for suspecting a breach of accuracy or impartiality in the use of footage which reflected this fact.
Not Upheld