Ofcom says the BBC had refused to broadcast its correction a second time, as requested by Heath Ferguson
Credit: By Coffee Lover on Flickr. Some rights reserved.Ofcom has upheld a complaint of unfair treatment against BBC North West Tonight made by a businessman after a sign for his company was included in a report about a separate car dealership alleged to have defrauded customers.
According to the latest broadcast bulletin from Ofcom, published today, the BBC report broadcast in August last year focused on a company called Car Planet and the allegations made against it, but also included two shots, including a three second close-up, which focused on the sign of a different company on the same premises, Top Coat Limited.
Top Coat, owned by Heath Ferguson, is not connected with Car Planet other than having rented space from it. Ferguson complained to the BBC on the day after the report was broadcast that his company’s signs were visible in the report, Ofcom said.
In response to Ferguson, the BBC emailed him and said it would broadcast a correction on both the evening and late editions of North West Tonight to clarify that his company was not connected to Car Planet.
The script for the correction included the line: "We'd like to make it clear that Top Coat is not the subject of any complaint or inquiry."
In turn, Ferguson asked for the complaint to be broadcast again the following Monday, claiming that he had not had enough notice to alert his clients to the correction. The BBC refused and Ferguson complained to Ofcom.
In the decision notice published on its website today, the regulator said: "Some viewers might have understood that Top Coat was associated with Car Planet and potentially implicated in the fraud allegedly carried out by Car Planet."
It added: "The BBC took swift and appropriate action by broadcasting a correction in the following day's editions of North West Tonight.
"However, in light of the factors noted above it concluded that the programme on its own (i.e. in the absence of the follow up correction in the next day's editions of same programme) could have adversely affected viewers' perceptions of Top Coat."
Ofcom found that the BBC had "failed to take reasonable care to satisfy itself that material facts were not presented, disregarded or omitted in a way that was unfair to Top Coat" and upheld Mr Ferguson's complaint of unjust or unfair treatment, in contravention of Rule 7.1 of the Broadcasting Code.
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