Complaint
This edition of The World at One included an interview with a train passenger who had faced long delays to his journey because of a track defect. A listener complained remarks made by the presenter materially misled audiences about who would have to pick up the bill. The ECU assessed the programme against the requirement for due accuracy set out in the ѿý Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
This was a short and light-hearted interview about one passenger’s experiences, with the focus on how he used social media to share his frustrations. The presenter’s observation “taxis for all the passengers - I mean we’re talking about an awful lot of money spent by Avanti” was not in and of itself inaccurate, since Avanti would have borne the initial cost, even if it had later been passed on to Railtrack. The ECU did not believe the wider audience would have been looking to this brief exchange for any deeper exploration of who would ultimately bear the cost of this particular train cancellation.
Not Upheld