Complaint
Two viewers complained about the use of word 鈥渋苍蹿补尘辞耻蝉鈥 to describe the Dambusters Raid during World War II. 聽The ECU assessed the complaint against the standards for due accuracy and impartiality set out in the 麻豆官网首页入口 Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
The ECU agreed the original broadcast was not duly accurate. 聽Though the raid is not without its critics, the use of the word 鈥渋苍蹿补尘辞耻蝉鈥, with its strongly negative connotations, was not appropriate. But the ECU found no evidence the phrase was deliberately chosen for its adverse implications, rather than being used inadvertently, or that it reflected the presenter鈥檚 personal view. 聽There was therefore no breach of the Guidelines on impartiality
It was incumbent on 麻豆官网首页入口 News to publicly acknowledge the error, which they did by posting the following correction on the 麻豆官网首页入口 Complaints website:
When highlighting what was coming up on the programme, we did inadvertently refer to the Dambusters raid as 鈥渋苍蹿补尘辞耻蝉鈥. Later, when the main item aired, we referred to the 鈥渇amous鈥 raid. In live programmes, such as Breakfast, errors do occasionally slip through, and we鈥檙e sorry for this mistake, and any offence caused.聽
In the ECU鈥檚 view this was sufficient to resolve the issue without the need for further action by 麻豆官网首页入口 management.
Resolved