Complaint
The programme included an interview with Julian Jessop, a Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). A viewer complained the BBC should have made clear that the source of the IEA’s funding was secret, which in their view was “very concerning for democracy”. The ECU assessed whether the output met the standards of accuracy and impartiality set out in the BBC Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
The Guidelines say BBC output “should not automatically assume that contributors from other organisations (such as academics, journalists, researchers and representatives of charities and think-tanks) are unbiased. Appropriate information about their affiliations, funding and particular viewpoints should be made available to the audience, when relevant to the context”. In this case the discussion was about a speech made by the former Prime Minister, Liz Truss. Mr Jessop was introduced as representing the “free market think tank, the Institute for (sic) Economic Affairs, and a big supporter of Liz Truss”. In the ECU’s view, this gave the audience enough information about why Mr Jessop’s opinions were relevant to the topic under discussion to be able to make an informed judgement about his contribution, and the fact that the IEA does not disclose all its sources of funding was immaterial to the accuracy and impartiality of the discussion.
Not Upheld