Complaint
A viewer complained that this edition showed bias in its failure to report on BP’s profits, in particular the company’s decision to revise a commitment to reducing its dependency on fossil fuels. The ECU considered this against the standards for due impartiality set out in the Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
The content and order of a news bulletin are in principle a matter for the BBC and the editors it employs. This does not exempt programmes from the requirements of due accuracy and due impartiality but does give them considerable latitude in the choices they make.
In the case of BP, the initial focus of the BBC coverage that day was on the size of the company’s profits, as in many people’s minds these were related to and contrasted with the recent substantial increase in energy bills. BP’s revised commitments to reducing its dependency on fossil fuels did not get the same level of attention. But as the day progressed the ECU noted it did feature in the BBC’s coverage, including a detailed online article.
The ECU found no evidence the BBC deliberately or inadvertently ignored the story, even if sometimes it took second place to another aspect of the results or was supplanted entirely by other stories of interest that day.
Not Upheld