Complaint
A viewer complained that the inclusion of Nigel Farage on the panel was inappropriate in the light of his political views and his irrelevance (in the viewer’s judgement) to the forthcoming election, and that the frequency of his appearances on the programme was symptomatic of general bias in his favour. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the 91Èȱ¬â€™s editorial standards of impartiality.
Outcome
The selection of panellists is a matter for the editorial discretion of the programme-makers, and the ECU can only concern itself with whether the contents of the programme were duly impartial. The ECU found no breach of impartiality resulting from the inclusion of Mr Farage, in the context of a programme focused on debate, in which the views of panellists are challenged by other panellists and members of the audience. As to the frequency of his appearances on the programme, the ECU saw no grounds to suppose this was due to partiality rather than to the programme-makers’ efforts to give due weight to an appropriate range of political viewpoints over time.
Not Upheld