BBC failed to question peer’s climate claims

THE BBC breached broadcasting rules by failing to challenge Lord Lawson, pictured, when he made inaccurate claims about climate change, the communications watchdog Ofcom has ruled.

Its decision came after complaints about a Radio 4 Today programme interview last year in which the Tory peer claimed ‘ all the experts say there hasn’t been’ an increase in extreme weather events. The former chancellor also said that according to official figures, ‘during this past ten years… average world temperature has slightly declined’.

Ofcom’s report said: ‘Neither statement was correct or sufficiently challenged during the interview [by Justin Webb] or subsequently during the programme.’

The watchdog ruled that the BBC had broken a broadcasting rule that says ‘news, in whatever form, must be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality’.

It is the first time the BBC has been in breach of Ofcom rules since it took over regulation of the corporation last April.