Charlie Hebdo attack: Sky cleared over clip of police officer’s murder

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/apr/21/charlie-hebdo-attack-sky-cleared-over-clip-of-police-officers

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Sky News has avoided censure for showing a clip of the murder of a police officer during the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, after an investigation by the UK broadcast media regulator cleared the graphic footage.

Sky News broadcast footage of the gunmen who attacked the headquarters of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and murdered a police officer, Ahmed Merabet, in the street. The scene was caught on video by a number of witnesses.

Sky News, which aired the amateur footage repeatedly on the day of the attack on 7 January, showed the police officer being shot but edited out the final seconds when he receives a second shot to the head.

Ofcom launched an investigation into whether such graphic footage being aired before the 9pm watershed was in breach of the broadcasting code.

Related: Charlie Hebdo attacks: ‘It’s carnage, a bloodbath. Everyone is dead’

The media regulator decided the editing of the clip meant the broadcaster had “appropriately limited” footage so the moment of the death of the police officer was not shown.

“Ofcom carefully investigated Sky News’ coverage of the shootings in Paris, which included edited footage of the murder of a police officer,” said a spokesman for Ofcom. We found that the channel did not breach broadcasting rules. In particular, we concluded it was in the public interest to broadcast footage of this breaking news story, and that the footage was appropriately limited so as not to cause undue offence.”

Ofcom also investigated a number of complaints about the coverage of the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine office levelled at news and current affairs programmes on BBC1, BBC Radio 4, BBC News Channel, ITV and LBC.

The media regulator received 21 complaints that the coverage was “too graphic, insensitive and had the potential to cause religious offence”.

After assessing the complaints, Ofcom decided none of the broadcasters were in breach of the UK broadcasting code.

“While some of the footage clearly had the potential to cause offence, we noted it was in the public interest for broadcasters to cover such a significant event, and the footage was handled appropriately, limiting the potential to cause offence,” said the spokesman. “Ofcom carefully assessed a number of complaints about the broadcast coverage of the Paris attacks and has decided not to take the issue forward for further investigation”.