Complaint
The programme included a discussion of Public Health Agency Northern Ireland鈥檚 campaign on monkeypox, which targeted men who have sex with men.聽 A listener complained that it was conducted by Stephen Nolan in a cavalier manner, with insufficient sensitivity to the danger of unfairly stigmatising a particular group.聽 The complaint fell to be considered mainly in relation to the 大象传媒鈥檚 editorial standard of harm and offence, but the ECU also considered it in relation to accuracy and impartiality insofar as it suggested that, by unduly focusing on the risk to, and actions of, men who have sex with men, the programme risked giving listeners a misleading sense of how monkeypox was transmitted.
Outcome
As the listener pointed out, monkeypox is spread by skin-to-skin contact, rather than sexual activity per se, but this was made clear during the course of the programme.聽 As to the focus on men who have sex with men, this reflected the targeting of the campaign, which itself appears to have reflected the incidence of the disease.聽 At the time of transmission the UK Health Security Agency had said 鈥淚nvestigations and modelling continue to show that the outbreak is growing and cases remain primarily in gay, bisexual, or men who have sex with men (GBMSM), within interconnected sexual networks鈥, and it reported that, as of 18 July 2022, the data showed that 96.5% of cases in the UK affected individuals within the GBMSM cohort.聽 The ECU therefore found neither inaccuracy nor bias in the programme鈥檚 focus.聽 The complaint was also not upheld in relation to harm and offence.
Not upheld