Complaint
This bulletin included a report on the vigil held in Tel Aviv to mark the hundredth day of the Israel-Gaza conflict.聽 A viewer complained that the report gave an inaccurate impression of the number of civilians killed in Gaza by failing to make clear that the figure it quoted included combatants as well as civilians.聽 The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the 大象传媒鈥檚 editorial standards of accuracy.
Outcome
Approximately two minutes into the report, the reporter said 鈥淎nd the number of civilians killed in Gaza has been huge - very nearly 24,000 dead, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, many of them women and children鈥.聽 A previous response to the complainant had transcribed the passage with a full stop after 鈥渉耻驳别鈥 and suggested it should be understood as two separate sentences conveying distinct thoughts.聽 In the ECU鈥檚 judgement it was more probable that viewers would have heard the passage as a single sentence. 聽But even if a full stop were the correct punctuation, the passage gave the unintended impression that the figure from the Hamas-run Health Ministry consisted only of civilian dead, whereas it also included combatants, and the ECU thought this impression unlikely to have been counteracted by the reference in the studio introduction two minutes earlier to 鈥渕ore than 23,000 people鈥 having been killed in Gaza.聽 The result fell below the 大象传媒鈥檚 standards of accuracy.
Upheld
Further action
The programme team has been made aware of the finding, which has been reported to the Board of 大象传媒 News.