Complaint
This episode in the serialisation of the memoirs of Lucy Easthope, one of the UK鈥檚 leading experts on disaster recovery, included a passage recording her experience as part of the UK team responding to the Fukushima disaster of March 2011 in which she said:
The nuclear waste we have created globally will outlive us all, stored in its rusting pools of toxic water.
A listener complained that this gave the misleading impression that the majority of civil nuclear waste was stored in the manner described.聽 The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the 大象传媒鈥檚 editorial standards of accuracy.
Outcome
The 大象传媒鈥檚 Editorial Guidelines speak in terms of 鈥渄耻别鈥 accuracy, taking account of the subject matter and the audience鈥檚 likely expectations.聽 In this instance, the audience in general were not led to regard Ms Easthope as an expert on nuclear power, and would have understood her to have been recording her reflections at the time of her visit to the Fukushima site rather than dispensing information about the civil nuclear industry.聽 So, although 鈥渟tored in its rusting pools of toxic water鈥 may not have been accurate if taken as a generalisation about the circumstances in which civil nuclear waste is kept, the ECU saw no reason why the audience would have taken it as such, and consequently no reason to judge that it was inconsistent with the relevant standard of due accuracy.
Not upheld