Today, Radio 4, 5 April 2023

Complaint

A listener complained about a report which looked at violence at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. The ECU considered the complaint against the standards for due impartiality set out in the 大象传媒 Editorial Guidelines.


Outcome

The Editorial Guidelines make clear impartiality is resistant to simple quantification and does not require precise equivalence in language. 聽In this case the fact an Israeli policeman was described as being 鈥渓ightly wounded鈥 whereas the extent of injuries sustained by Palestinian protesters was not similarly qualified, was not therefore evidence of bias. 聽In the ECU鈥檚 view listeners were given sufficient information to understand what had happened and who was involved, including that a group of Palestinians had barricaded themselves into the mosque and refused to leave, and had aimed fireworks and rocks at the police, who had responded with rubber bullets.

Not Upheld