Friday 3 June 2011

Complaint against the BBC upheld: Gonçalo Amaral did not use offensive language about the McCanns

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The BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit has published its ruling on complaints that one of their reporters had misquoted Gonçalo Amaral outside the court in Lisbon.

BBC East Midlands 30/05/2011

ECU Ruling: East Midlands Today, BBC1 (East Midlands), 12 January 2011

Publication date: 30 May 2011

Complaint


The programme included a brief exchange between a reporter and Gonçalo Amaral (a former policeman who had worked on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and had since written a book on the case). One word in the exchange was bleeped, and the report gave the impression that this was because Sr Amaral had used offensive language about the MrCanns. A viewer complained that this was inaccurate and unfair to Sr Amaral.

Outcome
The reporter's belief, reinforced by others on the programme team who viewed the recording, was that Sr Amaral had indeed used an English phrase which included an offensive term applied to the McCanns. On further examination, however, it became clear that Sr Amaral had been speaking Portuguese, and that an inoffensive phrase had been misconstrued. Upheld

Further action
The Editor of the programme has discussed the outcome with the producer and reporter involved. In future, the team plans to use interpreters if clips from interviews are unclear.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brilliant climb down for McCann's PR here. I was one of those who complained to BBC - never got a reply of course.

Anonymous said...

What is of most concern is the attitude of the british media, who appear to have been given carte blanche to make disparaging remarks about Goncalo Amaral- or even encouragement?

Anonymous said...

What is of most concern is the attitude of the british media, who appear to have been given carte blanche to make disparaging remarks about Goncalo Amaral- or even encouragement?

Anonymous said...

Incredible that, after all the tabloids slagging off Amaral's "vile outburst", the only action that the BBC will take is to use interpreters in future...

Why didn't they use them then??? They don't speak Portuguese.

They could have spared all the tabloids insulting Amaral yet again & they could have spared us yet more anguished McCann pictures.

They should, at the very least, enrol Mike O'Sullivan in an obligatory Portuguese language learning course

Angelique said...

I think Goncalo Amaral should sue each and every one of those papers who printed such awful things. I didn't realise they had gone to such lengths either as I don't read newspapers at all. I wonder if this will be reported by the press and if not, why not. If not they are showing a definite bias IMO and one that should not be there.

I think we know who are the ones with "foul mouths" in this farrago.

SteelMagnolia said...

Murdochs Sun newspaper and the Daily Mirror claimed Leicester Police were critical of Portuguese police. LP said this accusation was false.
http://bit.ly/lVpoCl

Another one here from Winnower on twitter.

Mitchell has a lot to answer, the snake.