Kay Burley’s hostage remarks in Ofcom’s 10 most complained about TV broadcasts
Sky News presenter's astonishing question to Israel spokesman Eylon Levy in November takes fifth place in 2023 list
A Sky News show in which presenter Kay Burley compared the plight of those taken hostage by Hamas with Palestinians held in prison was one of Ofcom’s most complained TV broadcasts of the year.
In the broadcast on 23 November, Burley had questioned Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy about claims made by a hostage negotiator on “the comparison between the 50 hostages that Hamas promised to release, as opposed to the 150 prisoners that are Palestinians that Israel has said that it will release”.
Burley added: “He made the comparison between the numbers and the fact that… does Israel not think that Palestinian lives are valued as highly as Israeli lives?”
Levy could not hide his astonishment at the question, and as he later stated on social media, was briefly “speechless” at Burley’s comments.
He responded: “That is an astonishing accusation. If we could release one prisoner for every one hostage we would obviously do that.
“We are operating in horrific circumstances. We’re not choosing to release these prisoners who have blood on their hands – we are talking about people who have been convicted of stabbing and shooting attacks.” The broadcast took fifth place in Ofcom’s Top 10, receiving 1,880 complaints from viewers.
The Dan Wootton Tonight episode in which Laurence Fox made derogatory remarks about journalist Ava Evans was the most complained-about TV event of the year.
Broadcast on GB News on 26 September, it received 8,867 complaints, with viewers objecting to the actor turned politician’s misogynistic comments about the political correspondent and her appearance.
Fox and Wootton, who both later apologised, were suspended by the channelafter the broadcast and Fox has since been sacked amid an ongoing Ofcom investigation into the episode continues.
The incident narrowly beat Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh’s comments made during ITV’s coverage of King Charles’s coronation to the top spot of the media watchdog’s annual list, which prompted 8,421 complaints.
An episode of ITV’s Good Morning Britain in which presenter Richard Madeley questioned the Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran about her family in Gaza City was in third place in the list, with 2,391 complaints.
During the 17 October episode, Madeley asked Moran if “there was any word on the street” before Hamas launched its attack on Israel.
A spokesperson later said Madeley was “sorry that he upset viewers” and Moran accepted the apology as she thought the line of questioning came from a “place of … ignorance” rather than malice.
The figures do not include complaints about the BBC, which are handled by the corporation in the first instance.
Over the year, Ofcom received 69,236 complaints about more than 9,638 cases, a large increase from 2022’s total of 36,543 complaints. The watchdog also launched 57 broadcast standards investigations, finding in 35 of these cases that its rules had been broken.
In 2021, Ofcom received more than 150,000 complaints, driven in part by Piers Morgan’s comments about the Duchess of Sussex on Good Morning Britain.
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