Complaint
This bulletin contained a report on claims of racist and bullying behaviour by the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage MP, when he was a schoolboy at Dulwich College. A listener complained the allegations were “smears” and questioned why other political leaders had not been the subject of similar reporting by BBC News in the past. The ECU considered whether the report met the standards for due impartiality set out in the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
Decisions about which matters to feature in news reports are issues of editorial discretion, which do not by themselves raise the prospect of a breach of the BBC’s editorial standards. Due impartiality was maintained in the report through the inclusion of Mr Farage’s rebuttal.
Similar reporting on other political leaders would depend on the evidence available. But the ECU noted similar issues had been covered in the past.
Not Upheld