Complaint to Ofcom Regarding “The Great Global Warming Swindle”

In addition, the views of many people were seriously misrepresented by the programme, in clear breach of both Sections 5 and 7 of the Broadcasting Code (relating to “Fairness”, see: http://tinyurl.com/38x45e). This applied to two of the contributors to the programme, but also to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC);to many non-governmental organisations concerned with the environment, and their members; to Sir David King (the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser); and to others. These breaches have also been documented wherever they occur in the transcript.

We appreciate that this complaint is rather long. However, we believe it is in the public interest for a detailed examination of the film to take place, and in doing so we have documented a multitude of apparent breaches of the Broadcasting Code.

Almost all of the complainants and reviewers are professionals who are well placed to judge that the programme misrepresented the information covered; and we have strong reason to believe that it has misled the public. The two lead authors that are not professionals have studied climate science extensively in their spare time, and they object to media distortions and misrepresentations of science, especially when these concern issues relevant to current public policy.

This Complaint is Not an Attack on Free Speech

Both Channel 4 (see: http://tinyurl.com/ytogy5) and the film’s producer (see: http://tinyurl.com/yo4n5v) have sought to portray the film’s screening as an issue of free speech; and the film maker (and some sections of the press – see: http://tinyurl.com/28o3sn) have also sought to portray those who have complained to Ofcom as stifling free speech.

The authors of this complaint absolutely uphold the right to free speech. The programme was presented on a public broadcast channel, which has important responsibilities in a liberal democracy such as the UK. These responsibilities are detailed in the Communications Act and the Broadcasting Code, which was itself drafted in the light of the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights (as detailed at http://tinyurl.com/3ylvo2). We do not believe that the right to free speech allows the media to practise systematic deception as we believe has taken place in the programme. As such, labelling this (and other) complaints as an attack on free speech equates to labelling the Broadcasting Code, the Communications Act and the European Convention on Human Rights as attacks on free speech.

Contributors and Peer Reviewers of this Complaint

With the exception of the lead authors, all of the contributing authors and peer reviewers of this complaint are experts in the subjects on which they are commenting or reviewing, and include two former Chairs of the IPCC. Their details and qualifications are listed in Appendix I: and Appendix J:.

Peer Reviewer Sign-off

All of the peer reviewers have stated that the sections of this complaint that they reviewed and that fell within their professional competence are accurate, and that all of their comments and suggestions have been dealt with to their satisfaction – see http://tinyurl.com/ys3j4r.