Ofcom partially upholds IOPC’s complaint over ‘unfair’ treatment in Chris Kaba documentary

Chris Kaba was fatally shot by a police officer in London in September 2022.

The documentary, ‘Panorama: The Chris Kaba Shooting’,  detailed the public’s response to the incident and included details of the IOPC’s opening a homicide investigation into the incident, the subsequent Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) investigationand the murder trial of the police officer that concluded in a “not guilty” verdict.

The IOPC complained to Ofcom that the programme included interview footage with former IOPC employee Sal Naseem, who the IOPC said made allegations about its decision making that were severely misleading and gave the impression that “the IOPC was proactively defending our investigation after the officer who shot Chris Kaba was cleared of murder”.

The IOPC said that Mr Naseem claimed in the programme that the IOPC was “pressurised into starting a homicide investigation” when he said in the programme: “We made the decision for this to be a homicide investigation on Friday 9th Sept and it was fed back to us that if we hadn’t done it at that time, it was likely that there would have been a level of disorder.”

The IOPC stated that the claim made by Mr Naseem was given credibility in the programme because he was “portrayed in a way that suggested he represented the IOPC in an official capacity”. The IOPC also complained about criticisms made in the programme by former Metropolitan Police Service officers Neil Basu and Anthony Long.

The IOPC said it was not given an opportunity to respond to the claims about the IOPC made in the programme by Mr Naseem, Mr Basu, and Mr Long, and complained that a statement provided in advance to the programme makers was not included in the documentary.

In relation to Mr Naseem’s contribution, Ofcom found that the broadcaster took reasonable care to satisfy itself that material facts were not presented, disregarded or omitted in the programme in a way that resulted in unfairness to the IOPC.

However, in relation to the criticisms made by Mr Basu and Mr Long, it considered that these comments “had the potential to materially or adversely affect viewers’ opinions of the IOPC in a way that was unfair”.

“We also considered that the broadcaster was required, given the particular circumstances of this case, to have given the IOPC an appropriate and timely opportunity to respond prior to the programme being broadcast and made available on BBC iPlayer, but that it failed to do so,” Ofcom said.

“We also considered that the omission of the IOPC’s statement in the programme resulted in unfairness to the IOPC.

“Ofcom’s decision, therefore, is that the IOPC’s complaint of unjust or unfair treatment in the programme as broadcast is upheld in part.”

Responding to Ofcom’s ruling, IOPC Director General Rachel Watson said: “We are pleased that Ofcom has upheld two of our complaints in relation to the BBC’s Panorama programme about the fatal shooting of Chris Kaba, broadcast in November 2024.

“It agreed that the IOPC was treated unfairly by the BBC when we were given no right to reply to damaging criticisms made about us within that programme and for not including a statement we provided prior to its broadcast. Those criticisms were deeply concerning given they directly questioned our independence and decision-making.

“We felt we had no choice but to escalate our complaints to Ofcom after exhausting the BBC’s complaint procedures. While the BBC eventually admitted it had breached its own editorial standards, it refused to make a public apology, despite the IOPC providing evidence to show the serious reputational damage caused to our organisation as a result of the programme.

“While the damage caused by the documentary cannot be undone, we welcome Ofcom’s ruling that the IOPC was treated unfairly and are pleased that the BBC has been held to account.”