大象传媒

The exchanges occurred during live commentary on the progression of the hearse as it travelled from Balmoral to Edinburgh. 聽With the Queen's coffin due to rest at St Giles' Cathedral, a 大象传媒 presenter mentioned John Knox, the radical Protestant minister during the Scottish Reformation, who is buried close by. 聽This prompted the following exchange:

Presenter: John Knox in there as well鈥ramatic

Commentator: John Knox of course being the old great Scottish reformer聽

Presenter: Correct

Commentator: who cleared the Catholics out of Scotland.

Presenter: It鈥檚 how history remembers him.聽 (General laughter)

Setting aside whether the statement about John Knox is true (and there are grounds for believing it exaggerated the impact of the Reformation on Scottish Catholicism), the ECU accepted the reaction gave an inappropriate impression.聽 It is understood the laughter was a startled reaction to an unexpected comment, and not an expression of amusement, but it nevertheless tended to give the impression that religious persecution was a matter which could be treated lightly.

The 大象传媒 Guidelines on Harm and Offence do not preclude the possibility that 大象传媒 output may cause offence, but insist there must be a good editorial justification for broadcasting such material, and it must adhere to what are described as 鈥済enerally accepted standards鈥�. 聽聽These standards are not always straightforward to define, as they depend on context, and聽 meeting them will often involve broadcasters making finely balanced and split-second judgements. 聽But they would not, in the ECU鈥檚 view, include laughter apparently at the expense of a religious group in the context of a solemn occasion such as coverage of the Queen鈥檚 Funeral cortege. For this reason the ECU agreed there had been a breach of 大象传媒 standards.聽聽聽

Before the complaints were escalated to the ECU, the 大象传媒鈥檚 response 聽took the form of a summary of the 大象传媒鈥檚 position, published on the complaints website which read as follows:

Summary of complaint

Some viewers have complained about comments, and the reaction to them in the聽聽聽 studio, about the Scottish presbyterian John Knox.聽

Our response

We are sorry for the offence caused by the unscripted exchange during our live coverage of the cortege carrying the Queen鈥檚 coffin.

The merit of this response is that it offered a clear and unambiguous apology (鈥渨e are sorry for the offence caused鈥�) and gave readers some explanation (鈥渦nscripted exchange鈥�) for what happened. 聽This was in keeping with the 大象传媒鈥檚 commitment to be open and honest about mistakes when they occur. 聽But in the ECU鈥檚 view it fell short in that it failed to be clear about who was likely to have taken offence and why. The impression given is that it was a remark about John Knox, rather than about Catholics, which precipitated the exchanges in the studio and the subsequent laughter. In such circumstances the issue was not satisfactorily resolved and the ECU upheld the complaint.
Upheld