Complaint
A caller to the programme made reference to a contributor who he said was linked to a proscribed paramilitary organisation. The complainant said that Stephen Nolan’s response didn’t accurately reflect what he had said previously about this issue in 2021. The ECU assessed the interview against the standards for due accuracy set out in the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Northern Ireland accepted that Mr Nolan’s remark could be understood to refer to an occasional programme contributor who has denied such a link. However the person wasn’t named in this instance, meaning that their identity won’t have been necessarily apparent to all listeners. And the reference to him was passing and incidental to the main discussion topic making it unlikely the audience would have been misled by what Mr Nolan said.
ΜύNot Upheld