BBC accepts 'no causal link' between Orange lodge and cancelled GAA event - but defends controversial coverage
The BBC has accepted that there was no “causal link” between a statement by an Orange Lodge in Comber and the cancellation of a children’s summer camp, but has defended its coverage saying its reporting provided “wider local context for the decision”.
Almost a fortnight ago, a row erupted between the Orange Order and the BBC when the broadcaster claimed that the event – which was due to involve children from East Belfast GAA – had been cancelled after, and because of, a statement issued by Goldsprings LOL in Comber.
The corporation has so far declined to explain what justification it had for making the claims, which it now appears to accept were inaccurate – without saying so directly.
However, Goldsprings says it is not satisfied with the explanation – posted on the BBC’s clarifications website.
They have submitted a further complaint over the coverage – and accused the broadcaster of failing to acknowledge the inaccuracy and correct it publicly.
In an explanation posted on the BBC’s complaints website, BBC News NI says “We accept that there was no causal link between Goldsprings’ published statement about the GAA in Comber and the cricket club’s earlier announcement”.
However, it also defends its reporting on the grounds that it “did, however, provide wider local context for the decision that had been made - explaining the connection that we made between them.
“None of this was meant to misrepresent the lodge’s role, or the chronology and effect of its public intervention in this story – which has now been further clarified”.
The original claim was made over two days and on all of BBC News NI’s main programmes, as well as online. For example, the Nolan Show, presented by Holly Hamilton, said “A children’s summer sports camp in Comber is cancelled after a local Orange Lodge opposed kids from a GAA club’s involvement.”
BBC Newsline also claimed that “There are plans to rearrange a cross-community sports camp at a new venue after it was cancelled because of opposition from an Orange lodge”.
North Down Cricket Club later said that their decision was taken before any comment or statement from Goldsprings Orange Lodge, and was not influenced by them.
The BBC said it “We understand that the cricket club’s decision to cancel its children’s event was announced several hours before the first statement from Goldsprings Orange Lodge. This sequencing (and its meaning) should have been clearer in some of our reporting. It’s something that the lodge and cricket club clarified in subsequent statements – both of which we reported, including with new/additional specifics”.
In a new complaint submitted by Goldsprings to the BBC, the lodge says that the cricket club’s statement “entirely vindicates our position and underscores the falsehoods repeatedly broadcast by the BBC”.
They say they acknowledge the BBC’s “limited acceptance” that the sequencing and causality between the lodge’s statement and the cricket club’s cancellation should have been clearer – but say they “must express in the strongest terms our dissatisfaction with the inadequacy of the response provided, particularly regarding the failure to offer meaningful redress for serious breaches of your own Editorial Guidelines”.
A TUV spokesperson said the BBC’s response “is wholly inadequate and fails to address the central issue — that the broadcaster knowingly misrepresented the Lodge’s actions and broadcast damaging falsehoods.
“The BBC now concedes there was no causal link between the Lodge’s statement and the cancellation of the cricket summer camp in Comber. Yet no on-air apology has been issued, and there has been no accountability for the inflammatory and reckless comments made by its presenters. Attempting to reframe the Lodge’s statement as mere ‘context’ is nothing more than an effort to obscure editorial failure”.