The BBC's internal Editorial Complaints Unit has upheld a complaint about a TV documentary, Panorama which was shown on UK television last May and called into question the safety of Wi-Fi radio signals. During the program, Dr Gerd Oberfeld, from Salzburg called for Wi-Fi to be removed from schools, and this sparked a wave of schools in the UK clamping down on Wi-Fi usage.
However, the program was found to have given an unbalanced impression of the state of scientific opinion on the issue.
The programme reflected concerns about Wi-Fi which had been expressed by Sir William Stewart, Chairman of the Health Protection Agency, and the BBC's complaints unit said that it was legitimate to focus on questions raised by an eminent scientist with particular responsibility for public health issues. The programme made clear that its measurements of Wi-Fi and mobile phone mast radiation were taken at the points where schoolchildren were likely to be exposed to the respective signals, thus avoiding the false impression that the level of radiation from Wi-Fi was higher at source, and the results to date of the experiment on "electro-sensitivity" were correctly represented as inconclusive.
However, the programme included only one contributor (Prof Repacholi) who disagreed with Sir William, compared with three scientists and a number of other speakers (one of whom was introduced as a former cancer specialist) who seconded his concerns.
This gave a misleading impression of the state of scientific opinion on the issue. In addition, Prof RepacholiÃ's contribution was presented in a context which suggested to viewers that his scientific independence was in question, whereas the other scientists were presented uncritically. This reinforced the misleading impression, and was unfair to Prof Repacholi.
The Panorama website is required to print a note about the complaint.
Posted to the site on 22nd February 2008
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