Complaint
A viewer said the programme was incorrect to state that the airline Emirates owed its foundation to the purchase of “two second-hand planes from Pakistan International Airlines for just $10million”. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of due accuracy.
Outcome
The sum of $10 million was to set up the airline, not to buy the planes, which were leased from Pakistan. But as the subject of the programme concerned the lifestyle of the very wealthy in Dubai, and was not about Emirates airlines, the ECU did not believe this incorrect detail would have left a materially misleading impression in the mind of a viewer. It therefore did not regard it as a breach of the BBC’s editorial standards of due accuracy.
Not upheld