Complaint
The programme included a report that the Labour Party had defended its disciplinary procedures “after two North West members accused of anti-Semitic comments were readmitted to the partyâ€, one of the members in question being Sian Bloor, a union official from Trafford. A correction was later posted to make clear that it was inaccurate to say Ms Bloor had been readmitted to the party, as her membership had not been suspended in the first place. Ms Bloor complained to the ECU about this inaccuracy, about the photograph of her used to illustrate the story, and about the statement (in both the original report and the correction) that she had been “sanctioned for Twitter posts about Zionists†when the Labour Party had in fact imposed no sanction.
Outcome
In the ECU’s judgement, the published correction, together with a personal apology from the programme-makers, sufficed to resolve the first issue of inaccuracy, while the choice of photograph was unlikely to have swayed viewers’ opinions of Ms Bloor one way or the other. The source for the statement that she had been sanctioned was an authoritative one and, although she latter provided a letter from the Labour Party as evidence that it was incorrect, the terms of the letter seemed to the ECU to warrant the use of the term “s²¹²Ô³¦³Ù¾±´Ç²Ô±ð»åâ€.
Resolved