Culture reporter Paul Glynn reported that a police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), filed a complaint with Ofcom regarding an episode of Panorama that discussed the shooting of Chris Kaba. The IOPC’s request for a public apology from the BBC was not met, and the program aired without including the IOPC’s statement in response to claims made by its former regional director, Sal Naseem.
Following Mr. Kaba’s death in September 2022, when he was shot dead after attempting to ram his way out of a police vehicle stop in south London, Sgt Martyn Blake of the specialist firearms unit MO19 was found not guilty of murder in October of the following year. The Kaba family protested the verdict, stating that it was evidence of a disregard for their lives within the system.
In the Panorama episode, Mr. Naseem expressed his skepticism about the justification for shooting Mr. Kaba, indicating that he did not believe Mr. Kaba posed a sufficient danger to warrant being shot. The program did not make clear that Mr. Naseem no longer worked for the IOPC, and the watchdog was not granted the opportunity to respond properly to the claims concerning the investigation launch.
The IOPC registered a complaint with Ofcom because the BBC declined to issue a public apology despite acknowledging two breaches of its own guidelines. The IOPC provided evidence of the serious reputational damage caused by the program, including erroneous suggestions that the IOPC was pressured to start a homicide investigation. The IOPC emphasized that it would have vehemently refuted such claims had it been made aware of them beforehand
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