Complaint
The programme included a discussion arising out of the chemical attack in Clapham in which asylum seeker Abdul Shokoor Ezedi was suspected of having poured a corrosive substance over his former partner and injuring her two young children. In the course of the item in question Jeremy Vine spoke to a Â鶹ԼÅÄ News correspondent to get the latest on the incident and then interviewed an immigration lawyer Bryony Rest and former police officer Peter Bleksley described by Mr Vine as “Radio 2’s Policemanâ€. A listener complained of overall bias in the ensuing exchanges, with Mr Bleksley being allowed more time to speak than Ms Rest and apparently speaking as a representative of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ (at times seconded by Mr Vine) and suggested the item might have an inflammatory effect, tending to incite listeners to disregard due process of law in the treatment of asylum seekers. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s editorial standards of impartiality.
Outcome
The ECU considered it characteristic of the programme, which combines entertainment with elements of news and current affairs, to have regular and recognisable contributors appearing under descriptions such as “Radio 2’s Policemanâ€, and did not believe listeners in general would have understood Mr Bleksley to be speaking as a representative of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ. While he did speak for longer than Ms Rest, she nevertheless had sufficient opportunity to set out her own views, and to explain the law as it stands in a way which seemed to the ECU to guard against any inflammatory effect. However, there were elements of the discussion where it seemed Mr Vine was agreeing with Mr Bleksley in expressing views on contested questions, namely that lawyers should not represent some asylum seekers and that the law should be changed so asylum seekers who had been convicted of crimes such as Mr Ezedi’s (prior to the attack of January this year) should be barred from seeking refugee status in the UK. The complaint was upheld in this respect.
Partly upheld
Further action
The finding was reported to the management of Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio and discussed with the programme team.