Complaint
A viewer complained that, in a report prompted by an updated publication by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) the BBC’s Climate Editor had made a misleading claim that, while climate change had been causing more disasters, the WMO’s early warning system had reduced the number of deaths. In the viewer’s judgement the limitations of the historic data put the claim in doubt. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of accuracy.
Outcome
The Climate Editor made clear that it was the WMO which claimed there had been a reduction in deaths (due to “improved early warnings and coordinated disaster management” rather than its own early warning system alone). The ECU noted that the WMO publication contained a detailed analysis of the data and the caveats which applied to it, and agreed that some reference to these by the Climate Editor might have made for a more informative report. However, it did not judge it necessary to refer to them in order to meet the requirements of accuracy in a brief report of what the WMO had said.
Not upheld