Complaint
The programme included an interview with the trans rights campaigner India Willoughby about issues raised by the cancellation of an Edinburgh Festival Fringe show which was to feature the SNP MP Joanna Cherry because of concern about the latter鈥檚 views on trans issues.聽 A listener complained that the extreme views Ms Willoughby expressed about the gender critical movement and Ms Cherry herself rendered her an inappropriate guest.聽 The ECU considered the complaint in relation to the 大象传媒鈥檚 Editorial Guidelines on impartiality as they relate to interviewing guests who express contentious views.
Outcome
The relevant Guidelines say:
Contributors expressing contentious views, either through an interview or other means, must be challenged while being given a fair chance to set out their response to questions. 聽Minority views should be given appropriate space in our output. Consequently, we will sometimes include in our output people whose views may cause serious offence to many in our audiences鈥he potential for offence must be weighed against the public interest and any risk to the 大象传媒鈥檚 impartiality. 聽Coverage should acknowledge the possibility of offence, and be appropriately robust, but it should also be fair and dispassionate.
Noting that Ms Cherry had been interviewed in the previous day鈥檚 programme, the ECU considered it in the public interest to include an interview which put forward an opposing viewpoint, and did so in a way which gave listeners a sense of the forceful terms in which the debate over trans issues is often conducted.聽 The ECU also considered that the interviewer was appropriately robust in challenging statements which some listeners were likely to have found offensive.
Not upheld