Complaint
An item in this bulletin included a comment from a representative of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) on the prospect of Thames Water being taken into public ownership. A listener complained that the item failed to make clear that the IEA is “an opaque lobbying group” and so deprived listeners of the context necessary to evaluate the representative’s contribution. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines on impartiality as they relate to the affiliations of contributors to programmes.
Outcome
The intention of the relevant guidelines is to ensure audiences are given sufficient information about contributors’ affiliations to evaluate their contributions. On this occasion the IEA representative argued against the idea of returning Thames Water to public ownership. In the ECU’s view, the item’s description of the IEA as “a free market think tank” gave listeners the information appropriate in this context.
Not Upheld
