Complaint
In a report on Alex Salmond’s appearance at the Scottish Parliament enquiry into the Scottish government’s handling of allegations against him, the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s Scotland Editor Sarah Smith said he had called for Nicola Sturgeon to resign as First Minister. Two viewers complained that this was a serious inaccuracy which had not been adequately corrected. The ECU considered the complaints in relation to the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s editorial standards of due accuracy.
Outcome
In fact Mr Salmond did not say that the First Minister should resign; he told the Inquiry “I've got no doubt that Nicola has broken the ministerial code but it’s not for me to suggest what the consequences should beâ€. The ECU agreed that the statement in question, though unlikely to have much effect on the audience’s understanding of Mr Salmond’s view of the First Minister, did not meet the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s standards of accuracy in this context. However, the ECU noted that the equivalent report in the 10pm bulletin that evening repeatedly made clear that Mr Salmond had stopped short of calling for the First Minister’s resignation, that corrections were posted on both the Corrections and Clarifications page and the complaints pages of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ website, and that Ms Smith had tweeted a clarification. In the ECU’s judgement, these steps sufficed to correct the error and to resolve the issue of complaint.
Resolved