ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ News (6pm & 10pm), ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ One, 5 October 2022

Complaint

The bulletins included a report by the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ’s Political Editor on the Conservative Party Conference which ended with him saying (over footage of Liz Truss running to her car to depart from the Conference): β€œAs for the Prime Minister she couldn't leave quickly enough. She can run away from this conference but not the immense challenges she confronts”.Β  A viewer complained that this showed bias against Ms Truss (who, he believed, had been running only because it was raining).Β  The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ’s standards of due impartiality.


Outcome

In the ECU’s judgement, the Political Editor was not so much commenting on Ms Truss’ departure from the conference as epitomising her political predicament in terms prompted by the footage in question.Β  Viewers in general would have been likely to understand him as meaning Ms Truss would not be able to avoid the challenges facing her as easily as she departed the conference, and not as offering a view (impartial or otherwise) on the manner of her departure.
Not Upheld