Complaint
In an interview with Baroness Warsi the interviewer put to her that the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) had been boycotted by governments of both main parties after its deputy secretary general of the time, Dr Daud Abdullah, supported attacks on the Royal Navy if British troops sought to stop arms reaching Hamas in 2009. A representative of the MCB complained that, although the MCB had consistently disputed this interpretation of Dr Abdullah’s position, the programme had stated it as uncontested fact, had failed to offer the MCB an opportunity to respond to the allegation and had declined its request for a broadcast correction. He further complained that the statement provided the MCB after the broadcast had not been fully reflected in the posting about the matter by BBC News on the BBC’s Corrections and Clarifications page. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of fairness and accuracy.
Outcome
The ECU agreed that the reference to Dr Abdullah’s comments did not adequately reflect the fact the interpretation placed upon them has been disputed by both Dr Abdullah and the MCB, and that the nature of the allegation and the way it was used within the interview were such that the MCB should have been given an opportunity to respond. However, it noted that the posting on the Corrections and Clarifications page acknowledged that Dr Abdullah and the MCB strongly disputed the programme’s interpretation of his comments and apologised for not contacting the MCB before the broadcast, and considered that it fairly reflected the content of the MCB’s subsequent statement and additional points made by the MCB in support of its position. In the ECU’s judgement, this sufficed to resolve the issues of complaint.
Resolved
