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BBC ECU Put BBC Scotland in their Place

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54andcounting

54andcounting 627

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Help you out bears only so much can be posted on twitter!

Received today final BBC ECU conclusions don't budge on Spence but say " the facts have been established by a range of relevant bodies" off to Trust on Spence! RFC 1872 wink.gif

British Broadcasting Corporation White City, 201 Wood Lane, London, W12 7TS Telephone: 020 8743 8000 Email: ecu@bbc.co.uk

Editorial Complaints Unit

Sportsound, BBC Radio Scotland, 4 September 2013

The Editorial Complaints Unit issued its provisional finding on the complaints received about the above programme and invited further comments from complainants. We have now considered all the responses which were received and reached a final conclusion.

Many complainants made the point that it was not clear from the language used by Mr Spence that his comments referred to the company which owned Rangers FC (The Rangers International Football Club plc). They said his mention of “the old club” and “the club that died” could only be taken to refer to the football team, regardless of the broader context of the discussion or the specific point that he was making (the wisdom or otherwise of appointing to the board individuals who had presided over the old company which went into liquidation).

The ECU has acknowledged that there was a degree of ambiguity in the words used by Mr Spence and we agreed with BBC Scotland that his comments “could have been better phrased”. However, we remain of the view that his comments have to be considered in the context of the discussion that was taking place which was entirely about the composition of the board of The Rangers International Football Club plc and the running of The Rangers International Football Club plc.

The BBC’s Editorial Guidelines refer to “due accuracy” which means the accuracy “must be adequate and appropriate to the output, taking account of the subject and nature of the content, the likely audience expectation and any appropriate signposting that may influence that expectation”. Bearing in mind the widespread coverage over many months of the change in ownership of Rangers FC, it was unlikely that listeners to this programme would be unaware of the changes which had taken place. Indeed, it is reasonable to assume that regular listeners, and football fans in general, would be familiar with the story. We remain of the view that the likelihood of listeners being misled by the use of the word “club” in this context rather than the word “company” was extremely limited and would not have left the audience with an inaccurate or materially misleading impression. The status of Rangers FC may be a matter of debate among rival fans but the facts have been established by a range of relevant bodies, as pointed out by many complainants. We believe it follows that since the possibility that listeners would have misunderstood what Mr Spence said was limited, the scope for offence was equally limited.

Complainants who responded to the ECU’s provisional finding also made the point that Mr Spence must have known that the language he used would be regarded by Rangers supporters as provocative and evidence of bias. Many complainants pointed out that rival football supporters use such language in an attempt to “wind up” or antagonise Rangers fans and argued that Mr Spence would be aware of this. Complainants also referred to previous comments which have been made by Mr Spence (and other BBC Scotland members of staff)



about Rangers FC and argued that this was evidence of “a history of bias”. Many complainants said based on his previous public comments on the circumstances of Rangers FC, it was clear that Mr Spence was expressing a personal, biased view.

The ECU considered this point but took the view that whatever listeners might assume Mr Spence intended by his comments, the question we had to consider was how one might reasonably understand what he said on this occasion, in the context in which he said it. Our view was that it was reasonable to draw attention to the question of appointing new board members who had been involved in the demise of the old company. We noted that Mr Spence picked up on a previous comment from a contributor, Ewan Murray, that former chairman, John McClelland, could join the board.

Ewan Murray: John McClelland has been there before and has been chairman. My only issue with this would be – John McClelland was chairman in a regime that obviously went horribly wrong in the end. Now, and I say the same to an extent about Paul Murray, you know, they’ve been involved at Rangers at the past. What Rangers need to do, somehow, at some time, is move forward and again to me this doesn’t seem that this is happening. You know, the counterpoint is that they’ve had fresh names in the past and that’s gone horribly wrong but I would like to see them go, you know, fresh ideas, fresh people, instead of what this is going back to.

In conclusion, we have considered the various representations made by complainants but do not believe there are grounds to change our provisional finding. This document should therefore be considered in conjunction with our provisional finding as the ECU’s final decision not to uphold the complaints that have been made.

We appreciate that complainants may wish to pursue this matter further by asking the Editorial Standards Committee of the BBC Trust to review our decision. The Trust represents the third and final stage of the BBC’s complaints process.1 Correspondence for the Committee should be addressed to Christina Roski, Complaints Advisor, BBC Trust Unit, 180 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5QZ or you can send an email to trust.editorial@bbc.co.uk. The Trust normally expects to receive an appeal within four weeks of the date of this letter. It expects complainants to limit the details of their appeal to no more than one thousand words (although all previous correspondence in relation to the complaint will be forwarded to the Trust Unit as a matter of course).

1 http://www.bbc.co.uk...ts_and_appeals/



Well that puts BBC Scotland to bed!!! biggrin.gif

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