Complaint
A viewer complained that a commentator mistakenly suggested that there was applause in the 23rd minute of the game between Manchester City and Aston Villa to remember the 23 people who died in the Manchester Arena bombing, whereas there had been 22 victims of the attack.
Outcome
The ECU agreed this fell below the required standards of accuracy. The ѿý’s Editorial Guidelines say we should be “open in acknowledging mistakes when they are made” and it was therefore incumbent on the ѿý to put matters right as soon as possible. ѿý Sport explained the error was only spotted after transmission but once it had been noticed, action was swiftly taken to edit the version of the programme available on iPlayer. The ECU noted the action taken, but shared the complainant’s view that, on a matter of such continuing sensitivity, there also needed to be some public acknowledgement of the mistake, most appropriately on the Corrections and Clarifications page of the ѿý website. In the absence of such an acknowledgement the ECU considered that the issue of complaint had not been entirely resolved.
Upheld
Further action
The finding was reported to the management of ѿý Sport and discussed with the programme team concerned.