Complaint
A listener complained the presenters of this podcast assumed Israel was responsible for the explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza and was critical of some of the language used during the recording. The ECU assessed these concerns against the standards for impartiality set out in the BBC Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
The podcast was recorded shortly after news of the explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital began to emerge. For that reason information was limited and vulnerable to the distorting lens of wartime propaganda. In these circumstances it was incumbent on the presenters to make clear any detail was subject to revision and tentative at best.
In the view of the ECU the information provided was properly caveated and the presenters appropriately cautious in their judgements. Listeners were given a clear insight into the nature of the story and the alternative viewpoints without definitive blame being attributed to any particular source. The ECU noted the complainant’s objection to the inclusion of the word “strike” in the podcast title as well as a description of the blast as “outrageous” but did not consider either indicative that Israel was to blame.
Not Upheld