The BBC handled over 34,000 editorial complaints between July and September 2006.
These ranged from a small number of complaints about potentially serious breaches of editorial guidelines through to a much larger collection of views about programme content and scheduling.
The key themes which emerged are detailed below:
Bias :
A wide variety of views was represented in complaints about coverage of the crisis in the Middle East which began on 12 July. Some complainants felt that reporting was biased against Israel and others felt that it was biased in favour of Israel. There were also complaints about factual inaccuracy, standards of interviewing and lack of coverage of particular aspects of the situation.
Complaints were received about bias in Panorama :
Faith, Hate and Charity, which investigated links between a British charity and Hamas. Many of the complaints were received before transmission.
There was evidence of organised lobbying in both cases.
Offence :
There were complaints about Jonathan Ross’ comments about Baroness Thatcher in his interview with David Cameron on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross on 23 June.
Others complained about Alan Shearer’s suggestion that England footballer Wayne Rooney should ‘stick one’ on Portugal player Ronaldo inWorld Cup Match Of the Day : England v Portugal.
News :
Some members of the audience felt that David Beckham’s decision to step down as Captain of the England football team should not have been the lead item on the news ahead of the deaths of British soldiers in Afghanistan.
Watershed :
There were complaints about the depiction of sex before the Watershed in EastEnders on 1 August, when a scene between two young people in a nightclub was considered too graphic by some viewers. There were also complaints about the extent of the violence in the domestic abuse story broadcast on 4 August.
Factual Error :
A report on Match Of The Day 2 claimed that Everton Football Club charged £3000 for a child to be a mascot for the day. The BBC apologised for the error on air as well as directly to the club.
The BBC's responses to some recent issues can be read at
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