Oxfam tweet ‘was politically biased’
OXFAM was reprimanded by a watchdog yesterday over a Twitter campaign attacking the Coalition’s austerity programme.
Against a backdrop of dark clouds and stormy seas, a poster claimed the Government was creating a ‘perfect storm’ with zero-hours contracts, high prices, benefit cuts, unemployment and childcare costs.
It was posted on Twitter under the heading: ‘Lifting the lid on austerity Britain reveals a perfect storm – and it’s forcing more and more people into poverty.’
After a six-month investigation into whether laws had been broken, the Charity Commission concluded that the advert ‘could be misconstrued as party political campaigning’. It called on Oxfam to avoid giving the public the impression of political bias.
The advert was reported by Conservative MP Conor Burns, who accused Oxfam of using for political ends money the public had donated in good faith to relieve poverty and famine overseas.
Mr Burns said yesterday: ‘The fact that the Commission have published this conclusion after a very long period of deliberation shows how seriously they took what was very clearly a breach by Oxfam.
‘I hope Oxfam and other charities will reflect very carefully on it and make sure donations made in good faith to good causes are not spent on overtly partisan campaigning.’
Under charity law, charities have to remain politically neutral. In a three- page report published yesterday, the Charity Commission said: ‘We considered that the text of the tweet and the embedded picture gave rise to speculation and varying perceptions about the tweet’s purpose, leading to complaints.
‘We consequently considered that the tweet could have affected the view of those who received it and could be misconstrued by some as party political campaigning.’
Acceptable political activity is judged to be that which ‘supports charitable purposes’ and ensures that ‘perceptions of the charity’s independence are unaffected’.
It was accepted that Oxfam had no intention to act in a party political way but should have done more to avoid perception of political bias.
Mark Goldring of Oxfam said: ‘The Commission found that in relation to this tweet, we did not do enough to avoid people misunderstanding our intentions and we accept that.
‘We have reviewed our social media procedures.’