Complainant argued that a short commentary by a visiting researcher from the Ukraine on the 
elections in Crimea was one-sided and ill-informed.
The Tribunal held that the Complainant’s assertion regarding the researcher’s claim that the European Union’s electoral commission had not been allowed to monitor the elections, was incorrect. It was, however, as stated by the researcher, the European Union that had decided not to monitor the elections. The Commission that had, indeed, not been permitted to monitor the elections was in fact the Organisation for Security and Cooperation (“OSCE”). Furthermore, even if 40% of the opposing voters had taken part in the election, as asserted by the Complainant, that did not mean that certain groups in Crimea, mentioned by the researcher, had not indicated beforehand that they would not take part in the election. In any case, it was clearly only an opinion which the researcher gave, given the fact that the elections had only taken place the day before.
The commentary was, accordingly, not biased or not reasonably related to the facts as required by the Broadcasting Code.
The Complaint was not upheld.