Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 大象传媒 One, 22 January 2023

Complaint

A viewer complained that the presenter used 鈥渞ight-wing attack points鈥 and had 鈥渁n obvious agenda鈥 during an interview with the then Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. 听The ECU considered whether the programme met 大象传媒 standards of impartiality.


Outcome

Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg is a political discussion programme which includes in- depth interviews with leading politicians. 听In this case, Ms Sturgeon was the third party leader to appear on the programme, following the Prime Minister and Sir Keir Starmer in previous editions. 听The 大象传媒 Editorial Guidelines make it clear one of the roles of the 大象传媒 is to hold those in positions of power and authority to account, and this will inevitably involve asking political leaders to explain their policies and ideas. 听An experienced political journalist, such as Ms Kuenssberg, can therefore legitimately adopt a challenging, evidence-based, approach when conducting such interviews. 听In the ECU鈥檚 view this was a case in point, and the approach to all the subjects under discussion, including the issue of Gender Recognition highlighted by the complainant was appropriate and in keeping with the 大象传媒鈥檚 standards of impartiality.
Not Upheld