Complaint
A listener complained that Today’s coverage of events in Gaza that morning showed bias. The complaint focused on consecutive interviews which the listener claimed were biased because they presented what Hamas had said before presenting the view of the IDF. The ECU considered whether the output met the requirements for due impartiality set out in the BBC Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
The Guidelines make clear that impartiality is resistant to simple quantification. They do not suggest balance may be achieved by monitoring who speaks first, and the ECU is not aware of any evidence to support the suggestion such decisions have a material effect on audience understanding. The ECU also noted the interviews followed a news bulletin, which began with an Israeli not a Palestinian line. Israel’s position was also stressed by the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen, later in the same bulletin and in the introduction to the piece. It was not therefore the case listeners only heard two viewpoints consecutively, but rather two interviews, in the context of coverage which expanded on the evidence and the claims of both sides.
Not Upheld