Complaint
This bulletin included an item on the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen, former leader of France’s Front National. A listener complained that it amounted to platforming far-right ideology without the challenge or context required by the guidelines, while mischaracterising Le Pen’s racism. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™s editorial standards of impartiality and accuracy.
Outcome
The complaint was prompted by a clip from a longer interview with the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™s Paris Correspondent, which had been selected in the newsroom, and which was as follows:
He would have said were he still alive that a lot of what's happening in France and in Europe today bears out the warnings that he was making 30-40 years ago. Undoubtedly, that's the view that he would be putting out that worry about immigration is now mainstream. Â His warnings about what would happen if Islamism was allowed too free a reign in France and Europe, that that's happening, it's now possible to articulate views about worries of immigration and not be automatically typecast as he was as a racist.
In the ECU’s view the main point being made (that concern about immigration had become mainstream in France and in Europe more generally) was uncontroversial, and not such as to require challenge or further context. The complaint was therefore not upheld in relation to impartiality. The ECU accepted, however that the suggestion that Le Pen was “automatically typecast†as a racist, heard without the benefit of its original context in which Le Pen’s political views were made entirely clear, carried the implication that racism might have been unthinkingly or even unjustifiably attributed to Le Pen, whereas his racism was a matter of plain fact, as his convictions for antisemitism, discrimination and incitement to racial violence attest. The complaint was therefore upheld in relation to accuracy.
Partly upheld
Further action
The finding was reported to the management of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ News and discussed with the editorial team concerned.