Harbottle & Lewis represented its client Pets at Home in this matter and secured an on air broadcast of the BBC Trust ruling.
John Kelly, a partner in the firm's Reputation Protection team, said: "This is likely to be the last finding by the BBC Trust which will be disbanded after 3 April. It will be interesting to see how the BBC Board will adjudicate on such matters when it takes over from the BBC Trust in April. There is clearly a need for an independent body to ensure compliance with the BBC editorial guidelines."
The BBC Trust found that there had been a "failure of due accuracy relating to the item as a whole, as well as failures of the guidelines on impartiality, privacy and fairness relating to various points. Together these constitute a serious breach of the editorial guidelines and warrant an appropriate broadcast summary of the Trust's findings. The item must also be removed from the website."
A summary of the BBC Trust finding was broadcast on BBC1 at 8pm on Thursday 23 March and can be viewed on the Watchdog website here.
A copy of the BBC Trust report can be found here.
You can read our news article on the subject here.
27 March 2017
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
