Complaint
A viewer complained a report in this programme used the term “Palestinian Territories” instead of “Palestine” despite the UK Government’s recognition of its statehood. The ECU considered whether this breached the BBC’s standards of impartiality.
Outcome
The reference came during a report on the death of the Supreme Leader of Iran, and was to “Palestine Territories”. This was not an item on Palestinian statehood, or Israeli Palestinian relations and, in the ECU’s view, the extent to which anyone would look to this phrase in this context for a definitive position on Palestinian statehood was limited. Nor was language which reflected the reality that significant barriers remain to there being a functioning independent state of Palestine evidence of bias.
Not Upheld
