Complaint
A listener complained that the presenter had made an inappropriate criticism of the police response to serious street disorder in Ballymena. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™s editorial standards of impartiality.
Outcome
In the course of framing a question, the presenter said “We've seen over the past couple of nights that … whenever this trouble gets underway, the police having to respond last night in, in quite a heavy-handed way, using baton rounds, using water cannon that was needed given the size of the crowdâ€. In response to the complaint, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ management in Northern Ireland had acknowledged that the term “h±ð²¹±¹²â-³ó²¹²Ô»å±ð»å†was not apposite and did not convey the presenter’s intended meaning. The ECU agreed that, taken on its own, the term could imply the use of undue force. However, in a context in which the intended meaning was explained by the presenter and with reference to ‘the size of the crowd’ in Ballymena, the ECU considered listeners in general would have understood the presenter to be characterising the police response as forceful, rather than criticising it as excessive and that no judgment was implied.
Not upheld