Complaint
The ECU received a complaint from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) about the way the organisation was represented on this programme. The programme featured Sal Naseem, the IOPC鈥檚 former Regional Director for London, discussing the process which led to the unsuccessful prosecution of a Police firearms officer for the murder of a black Londoner. The IOPC complained the programme gave the impression he still worked for the organisation, with the result that viewers would have formed the partial and misleading view that he was speaking on behalf of the IOPC when he claimed it had been pressurised to start a homicide investigation by external factors such as the threat of public disorder. It also complained that Panorama had failed to offer an adequate right of reply. The ECU considered the complaint against the standards for accuracy, impartiality and fairness set out in the 麻豆社 Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
In the ECU鈥檚 view the programme included enough information to make clear that Mr Naseem no longer worked for the IOPC and could not be held responsible for subsequent confusion in the media on this point. Consequently, it saw no grounds for upholding the complaint in relation to inaccuracy and partiality. In relation to right of reply, the IOPC had contacted Panorama after becoming aware that the programme would include a contribution from an IOPC 鈥渋苍蝉颈诲别谤鈥 and, in answer to an invitation to respond to criticisms, had provided a statement, but as a result of oversight the statement was not used in the programme. In the ECU鈥檚 judgement Panorama should in any event have provided the IOPC with specific information about the claims to be made about it, and consequently found an element of unfairness to the IOPC. However it noted Panorama had taken subsequent action to include the IOPC鈥檚 point of view in the iPlayer version of the programme and the related online article, in terms which we considered sufficient to resolve this aspect of the complaint.
Resolved
Further action
The finding was reported to the management of 麻豆社 News and discussed with the programme-makers responsible.