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We welcome the successful outcome of our complaint to the media regulator Ofcom against Channel 4 News regarding a report broadcast on 2 May 2007. Ofcom upheld the key part of the complaint, concluding that there was unfair treatment of the Fairtrade Foundation. Their ruling stated that ‘the report’s contention that Fairtrade did not live up to its publicly stated guarantee was unfair to Fairtrade, because the programme did not sufficiently distinguish between certification and the ‘better deal’ that only comes with actual Fairtrade sales’.
 

‘This is excellent news and will be especially well received by the workers on Fairtrade certified tea estates in India who were extremely disappointed by the TV report and who know a solution to their problems is increased market share for sales of their tea on Fairtrade terms,’ says Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation. ‘It is also very welcome news for our campaigners in the UK who worked tirelessly to overcome the misleading impressions of Fairtrade given by Channel 4, a TV channel they generally regard highly for its coverage of development issues.’

Prior to its broadcast, the Fairtrade Foundation communicated at length with the programme makers while they were working on the piece in an effort to correct inaccuracies and dissuade them from misrepresenting Fairtrade as was clearly their intention. They pursued their apparent expose of the lack of impact of Fairtrade on two tea estates in Tamil Nadu, India, despite repeated clarification that this was a result of selling very little under Fairtrade terms. It was, therefore, entirely unreasonable to expect that the workers should be benefitting from receipts of the Fairtrade premium - the additional payment for workers to invest in community improvements. A balanced and accurate account of the situation on the estates would have highlighted the fact that their problem was the lack of Fairtrade sales rather than a failure of Fairtrade certification. It would also have featured the benefits to workers at nearby tea estates which do sell significant volumes of tea on Fairtrade terms and, therefore, do earn Fairtrade premiums. 

Unfortunately, Channel 4 persisted in their misrepresentation of Fairtrade and consequently the Fairtrade Foundation lodged a complaint following the broadcast. Some minor points of the complaint were not upheld.

Channel 4 will broadcast a summary of the Ofcom adjudication immediately before Channel 4 News at 7pm tonight (Thursday 14 August).

Click here to download Ofcom's full adjudication