UK's communications regulator partially upholds complaint against the TV program The Great Global Warming Swindle�. (July 22, 2008)

Broadcast as a documentary on the UK's Channel 4 on March 8 last year, with an edited version rebroadcast by ABC TV in July 2007, "The Great Global Warming Swindle" was the target of 265 complaints from the public sent to the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom).

Ofcom notes

The programme was narrated by film maker Martin Durkin. He also wrote and directed the programme. The narration stated:

In this film it will be shown that the earth's climate is always changing. That there is nothing unusual about the current temperature and that the scientific evidence does not support the notion that climate is driven by carbon dioxide, man-made or otherwise. Everywhere you are told that man-made climate change is proved beyond doubt. But you are being told lies.

This is a story of how a theory about climate turned into a political ideology; ...it is the story of the distortion of a whole area of science; ...it is the story of how a political campaign turned into a bureaucratic bandwagon

Elsewhere the programme narration stated:

Global warming has gone beyond politics, it is a new kind of morality�; ...as the frenzy over man-made global warming grows shriller, many senior scientists say the actual scientific basis for the theory is crumbling; It is a distortion of a whole area of science; ...the global warming alarm is now beyond reason.

[In addition] a substantial complaint 176 pages long from a group of complainants, some of whom were scientists (“the Group Complaint”). In summary, the complainants were concerned that the programme was not presented with due impartiality and that as a factual programme it misled the audience by misrepresenting “facts”. The Group Complaint also offered a very detailed and critical analysis of the programme.

In bringing down its finding Ofcom states:

Ofcom... carefully considered the issues raised by complainants and the Group Complaint as they related to the [Broadcasting] Code.

Bob Ward, Director, Public Policy, Risk Management Solutions Ltd and former Head of Media at the Royal Society, in summarising Ofcoms findings said:

Although Ofcom has found the Channel programme ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ in breach of the Broadcasting Code in respect of impartiality and fairness, it has dropped the ball by finding that the programme did not breach the Code with respect to standards of accuracy.

While the Ofcom ruling acknowledges that the programme contained factual inaccuracies it ruled that it had not “materially misled the audience with the result that harm and/or offence was likely to be caused”.

The programme has been let off the hook on a highly questionable technicality. Ofcom decided not to treat the programme as a news programme, which would have made it subject to section 5.7 of the Broadcasting Code:

‘Views and facts must not be misrepresented. Views must also be presented with due weight over appropriate timeframes.’

Instead, Ofcom decided only to investigate the programme under Section 2 of the Broadcasting Code, dealing with harm and offence, which states:

‘Factual programmes or items or portrayals of factual matters must not materially mislead the audience.’

The Ofcom ruling states: “In dealing with these complaints therefore Ofcom had to ascertain – not whether the programme was accurate – but whether it materially misled the audience with the result that harm and/or offence was likely to be caused.”

The ruling concluded: “In summary, in relation to the manner in which facts in the programme were presented, Ofcom is of the view that the audience of this programme was not materially misled in a manner that would have led to actual or potential harm.”

The ruling noted that Channel 4 had admitted errors in the graphs and data used in the programme, yet decided that this did not cause harm or offence to the audience.

I think most scientists, and most members of the public, will be offended both by the decision to screen a programme that is acknowledged as being inaccurate, and by Ofcom’s decision not to hold Channel 4 to account for screening the programme.

Ofcom’s decision is even more puzzling given that it ruled the programme had breached the Broadcasting Code in terms of impartiality under the terms of Section 5, which covers news.

Ofcom has dropped the ball in its ruling on accuracy, and it has failed to uphold the public interest.

Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society said:

TV companies occasionally commission programmes just to court controversy, but to misrepresent the evidence on an issue as important as global warming was surely irresponsible. 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' was itself a swindle. The programme makers misrepresented the science, the views of some of the scientists featured in the programme and the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The science of climate change is complex; however the weight of scientific evidence shows that global warming caused by human actions is happening now, and is set to continue. There is certainly a need for ongoing debate on climate change and on what we are going to do to tackle it but this programme made little or no contribution to that debate.

While David King, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government pointed out:

The link between global warming and increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activities is now established beyond all reasonable doubt. The basic science underpinning this link was established as long ago as the nineteenth century, and a vast array of more recent work has enabled scientists to develop further our understanding of the mechanisms in play.

Today, none but the most ill-informed can maintain that human induced climate change is not happening. The most recent IPCC report published at the end of last year sent a clarion call for action of increased intensity from that the political world heard that action is now needed urgently and on a global scale.