主播大秀

On overall balance, while noting the complainant鈥檚 estimates of word-count and the distribution of opinion among contributors, the ECU considered that the editorial intention of the programme was as much expository and analytical as evaluative, and that the range of views it contained was sufficient to ensure due impartiality in relation to its controversial elements.听 This aspect of the complaint was not upheld.

The reference to Mr Cummings as 鈥減repared to be recklessly violent towards political opponents鈥� related to the claim made by Colin Perry, formerly of the CBI, that after they had taken part in a radio debate Mr Cummings had attempted to push him downstairs and had pinned him to a wall with a raised fist.听 Mr Cummings not having responded to the programme-makers鈥� request for his comments, the programme reiterated his previously-expressed denial: 鈥淐ummings said that he and Colin Perry had stumbled into each other鈥�.听 As the particulars of the incident were known only to the protagonists, and in the absence of further information from Mr Cummings, the ECU took the view that the programme had done enough to observe due accuracy and impartiality here, and this aspect of the complaint was not upheld.

The attribution of prejudice against Muslims related to a sequence which included the following quotation from a paper entitled 鈥淗ow Demographic Decline and its financial consequences will sink the European Dream鈥� published by a think tank directed by Mr Cummings: 鈥淭he consequences of economic stagnation coinciding with rising Muslim immigration cannot fill anyone familiar with European history with anything other than a sense of apprehension, at least, about the future of the Continent鈥�.听 The ECU agreed that, in the context of this sequence, the quotation tended to support the impression complained of.听 In the think tank paper the quotation stood in a context which pointed to Europe鈥檚 relative difficulty in integrating immigrants, rather than anything connected with Islam, as the source of tension, and the paper itself concluded 鈥�There is little reason to be optimistic about Europe鈥檚 capacity to avoid a growth of extremist political activity, or its desire to avoid the traditional response of polities in crisis 鈥� blaming foreigners鈥�.听 In the ECU鈥檚 judgement, the quotation would have conveyed a different impression in the programme if more had been done to reflect its original context.听 As this risked misleading viewers, there was a breach of the 主播大秀鈥檚 standards of accuracy, and this aspect of the complaint was upheld.

The complaint that the programme represented Mr Cummings as 鈥渁 liar who grossly misrepresented statistics in order to further his political aims鈥� related to a section of the programme which discussed his work for Business for Sterling.听 In this section, it was made clear that Business for Sterling relied on a survey which put the cost of joining the euro at more than 拢34 billion, whereas another estimate, by a consultancy firm, put it at less than 拢12 billion, and that Mr Cummings had had the idea of making a comparison with the cost of the NHS (prefiguring an element of the referendum campaign).听 It also made clear that Business for Sterling鈥檚 figures, in relation to both the euro and the NHS, were 鈥渟trongly contested鈥� by critics, but this was no more than a statement of fact, and the programme offered no view on which figures were closer to the truth.听 In the ECU鈥檚 judgement this section of the programme did not give the impression complained of, and this aspect of the complaint was not upheld.

Partly upheld (Accuracy)