Complaint
In a discussion of issues related to climate change Chris Packham, on being challenged by the businessman Luke Johnson about the evidence for relating some recent weather events to carbon emissions, replied “It doesn’t come from Toby Young’s Daily Septic [sic] which is basically put together by a bunch of professionals with close affiliations to the fossil fuel industry.  It comes from actually something called scienceâ€.Ìý The ECU received five complaints which made one or more of the following points:
that, in the absence of a response on behalf of the Daily Sceptic website or challenge by the presenter, the comments were unfair to Mr Young and his website; that the absence of challenge and the decision to post a clip of the exchange on the social media platform X were evidence of bias on the part of the programme; and that it was also evidence of general Â鶹ԼÅÄ bias on the issue of climate change.  The ECU considered the complaints in the light of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s editorial standards of fairness and impartiality.
Outcome
The ECU accepted that Mr Packham’s comments amounted to what the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s Editorial Guidelines term a “damaging critiqueâ€, of a kind which would normally call for an opportunity to respond.Ìý When those criticised are not present to offer a response, it will normally be appropriate to bring this to the attention of the audience.Ìý It may also be appropriate to challenge the person making the allegation to offer evidence to support their claims.Ìý On this occasion, we considered the presenter was unlikely to be in a position to know whether what Mr Packham said was supported by evidence.Ìý However, the requirements of the Editorial Guidelines on fairness meant the programme should have made clear that Mr Young and the Daily Sceptic were not able to respond to the allegation and it was likely they would disagree with Mr Packham’s assertion.Ìý The ECU noted, however, that, independently of its investigation, Â鶹ԼÅÄ News had made a posting on the Corrections and Clarifications page of bbc.co.uk which acknowledged that Mr Packham should have been challenged, and considered this sufficient to resolve the aspect of the complaint concerned with fairness.
In relation to impartiality within the programme, the ECU noted that the discussion included a range of views, including those of Mr Johnson, who argued that a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy was not currently viable and would be detrimental to the UK economy.Ìý His contribution ensured due weight was given to the views of those who disagree with the actions the majority of scientists and politicians say are necessary to tackle the causes of climate change, and the ECU found no departure from impartiality in the content of the item.Ìý Nor was the posting of a clip of the exchange on X evidence of bias, as it was only one of more than a dozen clips from the discussion, representing the range of views expressed, to have been posted on X.
In relation to the more general concern about bias in the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s reporting on climate change issues, the ECU noted this was an occasion when views critical of the prevailing scientific and political consensus had been reflected in the discussion, and thus an illustration of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s policy of giving due weight even to minority views.Ìý These aspects of the complaint were not upheld.
Resolved/not upheld