Match of the Day, 大象传媒 One, 22 May 2022

Complaint

A viewer complained that a commentator mistakenly suggested that there was applause in the 23rd minute of the game between Manchester City and Aston Villa to remember the 23 people who died in the Manchester Arena bombing, whereas there had been 22 victims of the attack.


Outcome

The ECU agreed this fell below the required standards of accuracy. 聽The 大象传媒鈥檚 Editorial Guidelines say we should聽 be open in acknowledging mistakes when they are made鈥 and it was therefore incumbent on the 大象传媒 to put matters right as soon as possible. 聽大象传媒 Sport explained the error was only spotted after transmission but once it had been noticed, action was swiftly taken to edit the version of the programme available on iPlayer. 聽The ECU noted the action taken, but shared the complainant鈥檚 view that, on a matter of such continuing sensitivity, there also needed to be some public acknowledgement of the mistake, most appropriately on the Corrections and Clarifications page of the 大象传媒 website.聽 In the absence of such an acknowledgement the ECU considered that the issue of complaint had not been entirely resolved.
Upheld


Further action

The finding was reported to the management of 大象传媒 Sport and discussed with the programme team concerned.