BBC apologise over One Show report

The BBC has apologised to Basildon Council for a report featured on The One Show about the Dale Farm travellers site.

The One Show report was felt to be ‘inaccurate, misleading and biased in favour of the travellers’ by the council and the BBC Trust has partially upheld its complaint.

The Trust said the report failed to be achieve ‘impartiality’ and was unfair on the council. In light of the complaint The One Show will ‘strengthen its editorial procedures’.

The report claimed the controversial Dale Farm travellers site was legal ‘but had been developed without planning permission’. Basildon Council however took issue with that statement and the Trust agreed the programme failed to ‘clarify’ the site had been build on ‘green belt land’.

An interview with a traveller living on the site was also deemed as “unfair” by the Trust because the Council was not given a chance to address comments made by the interviewee.