Complaint
In a report on the acquittal of police firearms officer Martyn Blake on a charge of having murdered Chris Kaba, the reporter described Mr Kaba as “unarmed” at the time of his shooting. A viewer complained that this was misleading, because Mr Kaba was at the wheel of a powerful car which was a “kinetic weapon in waiting” capable of causing multiple fatalities, and that this “glaring and deliberate shading of undeniable legal and evidential fact” created an impression of bias on the part of the BBC. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality.
Outcome
The potentially life-threatening danger posed by Mr Kaba and the car he was driving was made clear in the report, and viewers would not have been misled by the accurate statement that he had been unarmed at the time. As viewers had not been misled, there was no resulting impression of bias.
Not Upheld