Complaint
The programme included an interview with Julian Jessop, a Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). 聽A viewer complained the 大象传媒 should have made clear that the source of the IEA鈥檚 funding was secret, which in their view was 鈥very concerning for democracy鈥.聽 The ECU assessed whether the output met the standards of accuracy and impartiality set out in the 大象传媒 Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
The Guidelines say 大象传媒 output 鈥渟hould not automatically assume that contributors from other organisations (such as academics, journalists, researchers and representatives of charities and think-tanks) are unbiased. 聽Appropriate information about their affiliations, funding and particular viewpoints should be made available to the audience, when relevant to the context鈥.聽 In this case the discussion was about a speech made by the former Prime Minister, Liz Truss. 聽Mr Jessop was introduced as representing the 鈥渇ree market think tank, the Institute for (sic) Economic Affairs, and a big supporter of Liz Truss鈥.聽 In the ECU鈥檚 view, this gave the audience enough information about why Mr Jessop鈥檚 opinions were relevant to the topic under discussion to be able to make an informed judgement about his contribution, and the fact that the IEA does not disclose all its sources of funding was immaterial to the accuracy and impartiality of the discussion.
Not Upheld