Complaint
This bulletin included a report by the ±«Óãtv’s Russia Editor on the news that a Russian military transport plane had crashed in the southern Belgorod region near Ukraine. A viewer complained that it was wrong for the Russia Editor to have said the war had been started by the Kremlin, as he considered the fighting was not technically a war because neither side described it as such. He also considered it misleading and biased not to have mentioned the 2014 coup in Ukraine (which he believed to have been instigated by the US) and the subsequent fighting in the Donbas region. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the ±«Óãtv’s editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality.
Outcome
In relation to the first point, the ECU saw no inaccuracy in describing the current conflict as a war, irrespective of whether it is so termed by the parties to it, and no inaccuracy or bias in alluding to the fact that it stemmed from the Kremlin’s “special military operationâ€. In relation to the second point, the ECU noted that the ±«Óãtv had on occasion explored the longer-term view of the conflict, putting it in the context of the change of President in Kyiv in 2014, the history of Ukraine’s relationship with the EU and Nato, the influence of the far right, the fighting in the Donbas post 2014 and the annexation of Crimea, including giving Russia’s perspective. In the ECU’s judgement, however, there was no requirement of accuracy or impartiality to allude to these matters in the context of a report on a recent event and the mutual recrimination arising from it.
Not Upheld