Complaint
The programme included statements (reproduced in a clip from the programme embedded in a tweet posted by the @大象传媒Politics account later on the day of transmission) to the effect that the UK鈥檚 鈥渕补箩辞谤鈥 political parties were opposed to re-joining the EU.聽 聽A representative of the Scottish National Party (SNP) complained that this was both inaccurate and lacking in impartiality in relation to the SNP, which was entitled to be regarded as a major party and supported re-joining the EU.聽 The ECU considered the complaint against the 大象传媒鈥檚 editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality.
Outcome
The ECU acknowledged that the comments complained of might have led listeners to form an inaccurate impression of SNP policy on EU membership or, alternatively, to make an incorrect inference that it was not regarded by the 大象传媒 as a 鈥渕补箩辞谤鈥 party in this context.聽 The ECU noted a later contribution to the programme by the 大象传媒鈥檚 Political Editor which made clear that the SNP favoured re-joining the EU, and which would have tended to counter any inaccurate impression in that respect, but it did nothing to counter any unfavourable inference about the SNP鈥檚 status.聽 And, as it was not included in the extract of the programme embedded in the tweet, it could have had no mitigating effect there.聽 The ECU therefore accepted that both items had fallen below the 大象传媒鈥檚 editorial standards, primarily in relation to accuracy (though by different degrees), but also in relation to impartiality on account of the unfavourable inference already mentioned.聽 Subsequently, however, the programme team published a post on the 大象传媒鈥檚 Corrections and Clarifications web page which laid out the SNP鈥檚 broad policy on re-joining the EU and stated that it was the third-largest party at Westminster.聽 In relation to the tweet, the clip from the programme was deleted and a note explaining the deletion was added to the Corrections and Clarifications post.聽 In the ECU鈥檚 judgement these actions were sufficient to resolve the issues of complaint in connection with both items.
Resolved