Complaint
The programme included an interview with a doctor prompted by the recently-published report by the House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee which described obesity and diet-related disease as 鈥渁 public health emergency鈥.聽聽 A listener complained that the doctor referred to children in the UK as 鈥渟迟耻苍迟别诲鈥 in comparison with their peers in eastern and northern Europe, on the basis that stunting is a well-defined medical condition which was largely inapplicable to the cohort the doctor was talking about. 聽The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the 麻豆社鈥檚 editorial standards of accuracy.
Outcome
In response to the presenter鈥檚 request for clarification of what he meant by 鈥渟迟耻苍迟别诲鈥, the doctor went on to say 鈥淪tunted growth by鈥 couple of inches, by about ten centimetres by the age of five鈥.聽 While recognising that this did not fit the medical definition of stunting, the ECU does not consider it inaccurate to use such terms in non-technical senses so long as their meaning is made clear to listeners 鈥 as was the case in this instance.
Not upheld