Complaint to Ofcom Regarding “The Great Global Warming Swindle”

Structure of this Complaint

This complaint is in the form of an annotated transcript of the programme, detailing how the contents apparently breached Broadcasting Code and Communications Act clauses. With each “Comment” in the transcript we have indicated which specific Ofcom and Communications Act clauses we believe have been breached by the preceding statement(s).

In addition the complaint contains 12 appendices, which provide relevant background information.

Referencing

Each breach has been assigned a “Comment number” for ease of reference, and these “Comments” cross-reference each other and the appendices, where appropriate. The page numbers are provided with every cross reference, so that when reading a print-out, you can easily find the cross-referenced passage. The cross-references also contain hyperlinks, so that when reading the complaint onscreen, you can click on the hyperlinks to go to the cross-referenced passage, and then press <Alt> + <Left arrow> when you want to return to the referencing passage.

In addition, the sources for all of the information in our complaint have been given throughout, in the form of clickable links to websites, which allow the verification of factual statements. In the case of the peer reviewed research literature that we cite, we have linked to the papers themselves where possible, and to their abstracts where access to the papers requires subscription. In addition, an alphabetical list of the references used in this complaint to peer reviewed literature is provided in Appendix K: with sufficient detail to find the cited papers in a public library.

Relevant Clauses in Ofcom’s Penalty Guidelines

We believe both Channel 4 and the film maker have made contraventions relevant to Ofcom’s Penalty Guidelines (see http://tinyurl.com/3ajn5x), which we detail in Appendix F: page 161. When Ofcom makes its ruling on the programme, one factor in particular that should be taken into consideration is the clause that cites “repeated contraventions by the same person”. The track record of the film’s producer Martin Durkin in breaching Broadcasting Codes is described in Appendix B: page 123.

Categories of Serious Individual Breaches

A full analysis of which “Comment numbers” (transgressions) fall into each of the following categories can be found in Appendix A.1, page 116.

Definition of “Serious”

Our definition of a “serious breach” is one that we feel would justify a complaint to Ofcom even if it had been the only breach that the programme had made.