A television camera looks on as police clash with protesters during evictions from Dale Farm
Credit: Chris Radburn/PAThe BBC has apologised to Basildon council after an investigation found that a report about the Dale Farm eviction breached the broadcaster's guidelines on fairness and impartiality.
The council complained to the BBC Trust that the report, broadcast in February by the One Show, was "inaccurate, misleading and biased in favour of the travellers".
The Trust's report rejected the complaint over accuracy, finding that it was "duly accurate" and that the broadcaster "had not knowingly and materially misled its audiences or distorted known facts", but said the piece had "failed to clarify that the site had been developed on green belt land" and been "unfair to the council in respect of a serious allegation made in the item".
The allegation, according to the Trust, "gave the impression that the council had failed in its statutory obligations to house or help relocate the travellers facing eviction".
"An explanation acknowledging that the council had offered help to travellers at Dale Farm to find homes or other legal sites to relocate to and the reason(s) why the travellers had turned it down would have prevented the item from being unfair to the council," the Trust suggested.
The council had also complained over an interview with a traveller in the report, which it said suggested that the council was prejudiced against travellers and discriminated against them on planning matters at Dale Farm. The Trust decided that the inclusion of an interview with John Baron MP, which "clearly stated the council's position: that the law had been broken at Dale Farm and it was now in the process of being enforced", meant that the Trust's guidelines on fairness had not been breached.
The Trust also found that a studio discussion following the piece between presenters Matt Baker and Alex Jones and actor Neil Morrissey, who was a guest on the show, created an "overall impression which was unfair to the council". It added that Morrissey had been placed in "a very difficult position when he was asked to comment on the recorded item which dealt with a controversial subject".
The Trust concluded that the "cumulative effect of the filmed item combined with the live studio discussion ... left the overall impression that the programme had failed to achieve due impartiality".
It upheld the complaint partially with regard to fairness, completely with regard to impartiality, but rejected the complaint about accuracy.
A spokesman for the BBC said: "We note the findings which we have taken very seriously. The One Show has reviewed and will continue to strengthen its editorial procedures to ensure accuracy, fairness and due impartiality on all the programme's output."
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