Complaint to BBC about lack of impartiality in reporting AoMRC statement on junior doctors strike

I just complained to BBC about poor reporting of a simple statement by AoMRC - there's no excuse for this.

Your Complaint

Location

England

First half of UK Postcode

NG12

Type of complaint

BBC News (TV, Radio and website)

Which news service is it about

BBC News website

URL

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35916062

Complaint category

Bias

Contacted us before

No

Complaint title

Failure to report with impartiality Royal Colleges

Complaint description

The headline "A&E strike should be suspended, say medical leaders" is one sided and lacks impartiality, in breach of BBC Guideline: "News in whatever form must be treated with due impartiality, giving due weight to events, opinion and main strands of argument." The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges statement starts with the sentence: "This is a time of unprecedented crisis for the NHS." This indicates an initial accusation of failure of health policy-makers. The third sentence starts with a call on both sides. The second clause mentions suspending imposition. Therefore an unbiased reporter would include both sides in the headline, or even emphasise the need for politicians to take action. The BBC news article fails in 3 ways; 1) the headline mentions only suspension of the strike, 2) the picture is of a clinician, 3) The headline & subheading both refer to action by medical profession, whereas politicians are only mentioned in ordinary text. In these three ways a bias is created which fails to reflect with impartiality the statement of AoMRC, thus misleading the public. No doubt the reporter's defence will be that the story is about patient care and hence the strike action is a priority. This view does not take account for the future deterioration of patient care following imposition of contract, and therefore still fails at impartiality.