Complaint
A viewer complained about a reference on the programme to the Iranian woman Mahsa Amini and challenged the accuracy of a claim by the presenter that 鈥渢hey beat her so badly inside their police van that they caused brain death鈥. 聽The ECU considered whether this statement met the 大象传媒鈥檚 editorial standards of accuracy. 聽
Outcome
The complainant argued there were no witnesses to Ms Amini鈥檚 beating and CCTV footage showed her collapsing at a police station. 聽They further claimed that after the broadcast, evidence emerged that she had died from underlying conditions and that she had previously been operated upon and was taking medication.
The ECU understood this to be a reference to the finding of the Director General of Forensic Medicine in Tehran Province, who said that there were no signs of bruising or swelling on her eye and no fracture in her skull. 聽However this was contradicted by sources at the hospital where she was treated, and initially by the hospital itself which stated she had suffered a cardiac arrest:
Resuscitation was performed on the patient, the heartbeat returned and the patient was admitted to the intensive care unit. Unfortunately, after 48 hours on Friday, the patient suffered a cardiac arrest again, due to brain death. Despite the efforts of the medical team, they failed to revive her and the patient died.
It was not clear to the ECU why the CCTV footage was relevant to determining how Ms Amini died. 聽The fact that she was seen walking before she collapsed was consistent with cases of traumatic brain injury and did not exclude it as a cause of death,
大象传媒 News explained the presenter was relying on a source which he had found to be reliable and who supported his analysis, based on eyewitness contacts. 聽The ECU noted the statement was congruent with the hospital鈥檚 initial account of the causes of death and that there were clear reasons why the official cause of her death was open to doubt and sufficient grounds to maintain that Mahsa Amini was taken to hospital after being beaten following her arrest and that her death resulted from her injuries.
Not Upheld