The BBC has apologised for an interview with Lord Nigel Lawson in which they allowed him to claim that global temperatures around the world have not risen in the past decade.
The former chancellor and climate change denier made the claim during a interview which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in August.
The establishment serving BBC now admits to breaching its own editorial guidelines on accuracy and impartiality and says it “should have challenged” Lawson’s claim.
The Mail Online reports:
The Corporation had initially rejected complaints from viewers, claiming that it was important to give air time to ‘dissenting voices’ in the pursuit of fairness.
However it has finally admitted that it breached its own editorial guidelines on accuracy and impartiality.
According to The Guardian, the BBC’s executive complaints unit accepted that the assertions ‘were, at the least, contestable and should have been challenged’.
During the interview with presenter Justin Webb, Lord Lawson said official figures showed that ‘during this past 10 years, if anything, mean global temperature, average world temperature, has slightly declined’.
He added that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ‘has confirmed that there has been no increase in extreme weather events’.
The BBC replied in writing to a complaint lodged by Dr Tim Thornton, a retied GP from Yorkshire.
In a letter seen by the Guardian, Colin Tregear, BBC complaints director, said: ‘I hope you’ll accept my apologies […] for the breach of editorial standards you identified.’
Niamh Harris