Complaint
A reader of this online article complained that it gave the misleading impression that the Government review it reported on applied to the UK as a whole, whereas it did not extend to Northern Ireland. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of accuracy.
Outcome
After being altered in response to the initial complaint, the relevant part of the article reads “Ministers said they wanted to modernise the system across paternity, maternity and shared parental leave in Britain”. Although “Britain” may be defined as meaning the island consisting of England, Scotland and Wales, in the ECU’s observation it may also be understood as a synonym for the UK. In any event, it is a term which leaves at least some room for doubt as to the entity it denotes. In this instance it was followed a few lines later by reference to a comment by a committee of MPs on “the UK’s parental leave system”, which seemed to the ECU to resolve that doubt in favour of the whole UK, thus conveying the inaccurate impression complained of.
Upheld
