Dear Tony Hall, Lord Hall of Birkenhead
RE: Cycling feature on The Nolan Live Show, Wednesday 15 November 2017
I am lodging a complaint and seeking an apology for the cycling feature on The Nolan Live TV show which misrepresented Sustrans’ Bike Life report and for language and behaviour that was both highly offensive and potentially dangerous, and seemed to be supported by a worrying editorial bias.
Bike Life, a bi-annual report on the state of cycling in seven UK cities, found a high level of public support for the development of segregated cycle lanes. No more so than in Belfast, where the survey by independent polling company, ICM Unlimited revealed that 81% of the population – people who cycle and people who don’t – supported this.
Sustrans was invited to be in the audience for the show but not given a right to reply when the presenter Stephen Nolan both misrepresented and dismissed the findings.
Mr Nolan introduced the topic: “Apparently you want more middle-aged men in lycra, this is according to a survey by the bike charity Sustrans, claiming that 81% of people here – I don’t know whether to believe this or not – support building more dedicated cycle lanes around Belfast, even if it means that motorists have less room on the road”. In a single sentence, Mr Nolan both misrepresented the survey – it was certainly not about ‘middle-aged men in lycra’ – and dismissed the findings of a statistically representative sample of 1,100 Belfast residents aged 16+.
This set the tone. While we had anticipated a debate, what followed was a dangerous rant dominated by Mr Hook accusing all cyclists of being lawbreakers. When the audience were asked for comments they came from the BBC’s Yvette Shapiro, one of Nolan’s producers, who had complained about selfish club cyclists on Twitter and received abuse via tweets in return. Her story fuelled Mr Hook’s rant, further fuelled by laughter from the audience, culminating in him comparing cyclists to Nazis and giving a Nazi salute.
Mr Hook may be a known sensationalist, but his stance was encouraged and almost endorsed by both the presenter and a Nolan show producer. Where in all of this are the BBC’s standards of impartiality and respect?
Behaviour that disseminates intolerance, hatred and discrimination is inappropriate and unacceptable and should not be encouraged or tolerated by the BBC. While the audience may laugh, the reality of such language impacts on attitudes to people who choose to cycle, whether they are men in lycra, women cycling to work, or young children cycling to school.
Painting people who choose to cycle as a menace on the road is not only deeply distorting of reality but risks legitimising aggressive behaviour towards vulnerable road users. It is a salutary reminder of the gravity of the subject that the morning after the broadcast a young man on a bicycle was knocked down by a van in Co Londonderry. The man in his 20s was critically injured and died two days later.
I expect an unqualified apology from the BBC to both Sustrans and the Department for Infrastructure, who jointly funded the report, for misrepresenting the research and not giving Sustrans the opportunity to balance the narrative. I also ask that BBC Northern Ireland and Mr Nolan apologise to people who cycle and the population as a whole for the offence caused by this programme.
Yours sincerely
Xavier Brice
CEO at Sustrans
from News https://www.sustrans.org.uk/news/cycling-feature-nolan-live-show-our-response
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