Complaint
The interviewee in this edition of the podcast was Asli Ertonguc, the UK and Ireland Managing Director of British American Tobacco (BAT). A viewer complained that the interview was unduly favourable to BAT, ignoring past evidence of malfeasance by the company and allowing Ms Ertonguc to express opposition to proposed UK legislation banning the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2008. He also complained that it contained inaccuracies about the scale and growth of BAT’s cigarette business and allowed Ms Ertonguc to make the misleading claims that BATs vaping products were only for adults who already smoked and that the company did not use influencers to market its products. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of impartiality and accuracy.
Outcome
In the ECU’s judgement the interview maintained the level of impartiality appropriate to a context where listeners would have been well aware the interviewee was seeking to present her company in the best light and would have judged her comments accordingly, and that it was legitimate to focus on current issues affecting the company and its business model rather than on past behaviour. The interviewer’s references to the harms associated with tobacco and to concerns about the promotion of vapes and nicotine pouches to young people provided the appropriate element of challenge.
As to accuracy, the interview included figures which would have made the scale of BAT’s trade in cigarettes clear to listeners, Ms Ertonguc’s claims about the company’s marketing strategy for vapes were appropriately challenged, and the complainant’s concern about the use of influencers appeared to relate to the situation in 2019 rather than current circumstances.
Not upheld