Complaint
A viewer complained the programme inaccurately suggested an independent member of the Senedd had been found guilty of sexual harassment and was on the sex offenders register.  The ECU considered whether the broadcast met the Â鶹Éç requirements for due accuracy.
Outcome
The programme discussed whether there was adequate provision within the Senedd’s administration to stop members found to have behaved inappropriately from continuing to sit.  The case highlighted by the complainant was used as an example because the Senedd Member in question, Rhys ab Owen, had been allowed to return to the Senedd after a six week ban, despite an investigation finding he inappropriately touched and swore at two women. This led to the following exchange between the presenter and the author of a report on the internal culture within Plaid Cymru:
There have been calls for a recall mechanism such as you get at Westminster so that Rhys ab Owen or other politicians could face a potential by-election – would you support those moves?
Absolutely, you can’t stand for election if you are on the sex offenders list but if you get elected and then become on the sex offenders list there is nothing you can do to get rid of politicians in Wales.  So we need that recall but we need also that independent complaints system that looks at patterns of behaviour, historic cases, looks at a wide range of things with experts independently administer to look at harassment, sexual harassment and bullying in the Senedd
In the ECU’s view this did not suggest Mr ab Owen was himself a sex offender or had been found guilty of committing a sexual offence.  The reference was clearly in the context of whether a recall mechanism was an appropriate measure for any MS found to have conducted themselves inappropriately.
Not Upheld