Tag Archives: complaints

Telegraph: BBC ‘flooded’ with complaints about Choosing to Die documentary

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The Telegraph reports that as of yesterday afternoon a total of 898 people had “registered their disapproval” of the Choosing to Die documentary, broadcast on Monday by the BBC.

The documentary shows author Sir Terry Pratchett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s three years ago, travel to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland and witnessing the procedures for assisted death.

The corporation said 898 people had registered their disapproval of the documentary presented by the author Sir Terry Pratchett, with 162 fresh complaints since it aired on Monday night.

A spokesman from the BBC was also said to add that the broadcaster has also received 82 “appreciations” of the programme.

Update: Journalism.co.uk has received updated figures from the BBC. There have now been 226 appreciations received and 408 complaints, bringing the total up to 1,150 complaints.

According to a spokesman the 226 appreciations make it one of the top 10 most appreciated BBC programmes this year.

Media release: PCC appoints three new public members

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The Press Complaints Commission has appointed Lord Grade of Yarmouth, His Honour Judge Jeremy Roberts QC and Michael Smyth CBE as public members of the organisation.

In an announcement today the PCC said it received almost 3,000 applications for the positions following its advertising campaign. The appointments were approved by the commission last week.

The new members, which includes a former executive chairman of ITV and BBC chairman in the form of Lord Grade, will each serve for a three year period.

Commenting on their appointments Baroness Buscombe, chairman of the PCC, said, “The commission has been very pleased at the level of interest shown in its role and its work and the very high quality of the applications received.

“These are important and significant appointments for the PCC. We are delighted to be able to appoint these three substantial figures from such a strong field and I am confident that all three will do much to contribute to the work of the PCC and will help ensure that the reputation and credibility of the PCC remains strong.”

BBC News controller defends interview with wheelchair-using protester Jody McIntyre

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An interview on the BBC News channel with Jody McIntyre, the student protestor who was allegedly pulled from his wheelchair during the student demonstrations, has received a “considerable” number of complaints, controller of the channel Kevin Bakhurst said on the BBC Editors blog yesterday.

In the post, Bakhurst said there has been a web campaign encouraging people to complain to the BBC about the interview with the “broad charge” being that presenter Ben Brown was too challenging. Bakhurst defended the interview, claiming that Brown “interviewed Mr McIntyre in the same way that we would have questioned any other interviewee in the same circumstances”.

In the interview, a copy of which is posted in the BBC blog, Brown questions McIntyre on why he has not yet complained, before asking him whether: he was rolling towards police in his wheelchair; provoking police; or if he was injured from the incident. (The quotes below are taken from part of the BBC video clip).

Brown: And you didn’t shout anything provocative or throw anything that would have induced the police to do that to you?

McIntyre: Do you really think a person with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair can pose a threat to a police officer who is armed with weapons?

Brown: But you do say that you’re a revolutionary.

McIntryre: That’s a word, that’s not a physical action that I have taken against a police officer. That’s a word that you’re quoting from a website. But I’m asking you, do you think I could have in any way, posed a physical threat from the seat of my wheelchair to an army of police officers armed with weapons. This whole line of argument is absolutely ludicrous because you’re blaming the victims of violence for that violence. In fact it reminds me a lot of the way the BBC report on the Palestinian conflict…

Brown: When are you going to make your complaint to the police then?

McIntyre: I will be making my complaint very shortly, in the near future.

Bakhurst says he is interested in hearing more from those who have complained, about why they object to the interview, as well as other views. His post has so far received more than 330 comments.

Press Complaints Commission: Sunday Times columnist breached Editors’ Code

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The Press Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint from television broadcaster Clare Balding against language used in a television review by AA Gill, published by the The Sunday Times in July.

Balding complained that a reference to her in the article as a “dyke on a bike” was a pejorative reference to her sexuality, irrelevant to the programme and a breach of Clause 12 (discrimination) of the Editors’ Code of Practice.

The newspaper had defended its columnist on grounds of freedom of expression and said the word “dyke” had been reclaimed as “an empowering, not offensive, term” by two “Dykes on Bikes” organisations. But the PCC said in this case the term was used in a “demeaning” way.

In this case, the commission considered that the use of the word “dyke” in the article – whether or not it was intended to be humorous – was a pejorative synonym relating to the complainant’s sexuality. The context was not that the reviewer was seeking positively to “reclaim” the term, but rather to use it to refer to the complainant’s sexuality in a demeaning and gratuitous way. This was an editorial lapse which represented a breach of the Code, and the newspaper should have apologised at the first possible opportunity.

See the full adjudication here…