Complaint
The programme included an interview with the Deputy First Minister of Scotland on the day after the SNP’s Treasurer had been arrested and questioned by police in connection with their inquiry into the party’s finances. A listener complained the interviewer had “made a claim that was false” in suggesting “Nicola Sturgeon was a signatory on the most recent set of audited accounts and may therefore be arrested”. The ECU considered the complaints in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of accuracy.
Outcome
The interviewer had asked the Deputy First Minister “Are you concerned the next set of headlines could be that Nicola Sturgeon is arrested because the only other signatories on the last set of audited accounts for the SNP have both been brought in by the police for questioning?”. Although Ms Sturgeon had not personally signed the accounts, she was one of three senior officers on the party named on the accounts on whose behalf the then-Treasurer had signed them, and the only one who had not yet been arrested for questioning by police. In that context, and as there was widespread media speculation about the possibility of her arrest, there was no material inaccuracy in describing her as a signatory on the accounts or putting the possibility of her arrest to the Deputy First Minister for comment.
Not upheld