Complaint
A viewer complained this article gave a misleading account of Montevideo convention. The ECU considered whether this aspect of the article met the standards on accuracy set out in the BBC Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
The article in its original form referred to the Montevideo Convention as requiring that states have “effective government” – when in fact that document refers only to a requirement for “government”. While that might well be a reasonable interpretation of the meaning of the convention, the ECU agreed that as originally set out the impression was given that these were the words it used – and this may have misled readers on a material point. A correction was made to the article and a note of this appended to it, which was sufficient action to consider effective action had been taken before the matter was escalated to the ECU
Resolved