Complaint
This edition focused on the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, its impact on the Iraqi people and its legacy twenty years on. A listener complained that the introduction to this programme was not adequately impartial in relation to whether the war was justified or not. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of impartiality.
Outcome
The opening minutes of the programme included a brief summary of the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath read by the presenter Kirsty Wark. It made reference to “the myth of weapons of mass destruction” and the “blood and thunder and mayhem” which followed the war. At the same time it also described Saddam Hussein as a “tyrant” and explained that the invasion was based on a conviction that it would make “the world a safer place”. The complainant argued this offered an insufficiently balanced account but in the ECU’s view a programme’s impartiality would not normally be judged solely in terms of a short section, in this case the opening words lasting little over a minute. The full programme, which sought the views of three guests with differing perspectives on the conflict, contained a sufficient range of views including the case for toppling Saddam Hussein, for due impartiality to be achieved.
Not Upheld