Complaint
The programme included a discussion about a campaign in support of a former soldier facing criminal charges in connection with Bloody Sunday. A listener complained that a contributor to the discussion had made inaccurate allegations about Security Forces activity in Northern Ireland, which the presenter failed to challenge.
Outcome
The contributor said that Brigadier Gordon Kerr, who had headed the Force Research unit, had been “engaged in plotting and planning state murder and state terror”, and cited the report of Sir Desmond de Silva QC in support of his statement. In fact the de Silva Report, though it found collusion between the Force Research Unit and loyalist paramilitaries, dismissed the view that the killings in question were actions of the British State, while evidence from other sources does not suffice to establish the truth of the contributor’s reference to “state murder and state terror” in connection with the Brigadier. In the context, it would have struck listeners as a statement of fact rather than an expression of opinion and, having passed uncontested, it gave a materially misleading impression.
Upheld
Further action
BBC news teams in Northern Ireland have been briefed on this finding and on the need to ensure that claims of disputed fact by programme guests are appropriately qualified or challenged.