Complaint
A listener complained that Stephen Nolan abruptly ended an interview with Matthew O’Toole MLA without giving him a reasonable chance to state his case about what David Campbell CBE had said in a broadcast interview the previous evening. The ECU considered the complaint against the standards for due impartiality set out in the BBC Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
The subject under discussion was comments that had been made about the position of the LCC’s member organisations (including the UVF and UDA) in relation to the Windsor Framework. The ECU understood the programme’s editorial team had concerns about the potential for defamation, notwithstanding the efforts that had been made to mitigate this risk. In the Unit’s view this was sufficient to justify Mr Nolan’s decision to conclude the interview.
Not Upheld