±«Óãtv

The Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) has received complaints about television and online reporting by ±«Óãtv News of the trial and conviction of Scarlet Blake at Oxford Crown Court.Ìý Complainants have raised a number of concerns about the accuracy and impartiality of the ±«Óãtv coverage.Ìý

This summary of the ECU’s finding uses she/her pronouns in reference to Scarlet Blake, as was done during the trial.Ìý This does not indicate a view on which pronouns might be appropriate in other contexts.

Issues of Complaint:

Accuracy:

A number of complainants said it was inaccurate and misleading to refer to Scarlet Blake as a woman and to use she/her pronouns in reports of the case at Oxford Crown Court.Ìý

The majority of the complainants made specific reference to a report on the ±«Óãtv News (1pm) on 26 February 2024 (the day on which Scarlet Blake was sentenced) or to the initial version of a report on the Oxford page of the ±«Óãtv News website published on 23 February, (the day on which Blake was found guilty of murder), both of which termed Blake a woman, with no reference to her trans status.Ìý The ECU has therefore considered whether the omission of any reference to Blake as a trans woman meant the two reports failed to meet the ±«Óãtv standards for accuracy.

The ECU noted that Blake’s trans status was not known to the ±«Óãtv (or, as far as it could establish, to other media) until it was introduced by the defence on 19 February.Ìý The police made no reference to it in their pre-trial briefing, it formed no part of the prosecution case, and Blake was referred to as a woman throughout the court proceedings.Ìý There was therefore no question of referring to sex recorded at birth or using anything other than she/her pronouns until gender identity was introduced by the defence on 19 February, on the basis that Blake claimed her experience of coming out as transgender and her parents’ adverse reaction to it accounted for much of her subsequent behaviour.

The ECU noted the majority of subsequent ±«Óãtv reports did refer to Blake’s gender identity, and considered that the omission of such information in the two instances specified by complainants, in a context where it had become material to an understanding of the case, amounted to a breach of the ±«Óãtv’s standards of accuracy.

In relation to the report in the 26 February bulletin, ±«Óãtv News published a posting on the ±«Óãtv Complaints website on 1 March acknowledging that the information that Blake is a transgender woman should have been included, and this was made clear to all complainants in correspondence before the matter was escalated to the ECU.Ìý In relation to the report on the Oxford page of the ±«Óãtv News website, the ECU noted that information about Blake’s transgender status had been added within an hour of its initial publication.Ìý The ECU considered these actions to be sufficient to resolve the issue of complaint.Ìý

This point of complaint has been resolved.

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A small number of complainants raised a separate concern about accuracy, on the basis that references to Blake as a “trans womanâ€� were materially misleading because the term is either not understood or misunderstood by many members of the public.Ìý

While acknowledging that the term is not universally understood, the ECU noted that the concept of gender identity and the terms trans woman and trans man are widely used in public discourse and by relevant authorities such as the when referring to people with gender dysphoria.Ìý In the ECU’s view, therefore, the extent to which members of the audience would have been misled by the use of the term in question was limited and did not justify departing from the ±«Óãtv’s published policy and associated guidance when reporting sex and gender.

This point of complaint is not upheld.

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Impartiality:

A small number of complainants said the decision by ±«Óãtv News to use the accused’s chosen gender identity was evidence of a lack of due impartiality in a controversial area.ÌýÌý

The ±«Óãtv recognises there is controversy over the distinction between sex and gender.Ìý People who experience a difference between the sex registered on their birth certificate and their gender identity may describe themselves as transgender.Ìý Some others may take the view that gender is entailed in what is often referred to as biological sex, and cannot be changed.Ìý Against this background, a simple refusal to use the terms in which people who regard themselves as transgender describe themselves would in effect be an endorsement of one viewpoint in this controversy, and the ECU considers impartiality is best served by the

±«Óãtv’s policy of using language and terminology which is clear and appropriate to the context, taking account of the subject and nature of the content.Ìý

This point of complaint is not upheld.Ìý