The BBC’s response
19 March 2010
Dear Mr Yon
Thanks for your e-mail regarding the BBC News Channel.
Please accept our apologies for the long delay in replying. We know our correspondents appreciate a quick response and we’re sorry you’ve had to wait on this occasion.
I understand you felt a report broadcast on 22 February contained an inaccurate and biased interview regarding the effectiveness of homeopathic remedies in treating cancer.
Gemma Hoefkens was correctly introduced as a homeopath and during the interview she spoke about her views through her experience and more specifically her claim that homeopathy had cured her cancer after all other medical options had been exhausted.
Both the validity of homeopathy as a medical treatment and this specific claim were subject to challenge on a number of occasions by Joanna Gosling who put it to her that:
“The MPs are today saying that there is no evidence that homeopathy works beyond a placebo effect, what do you say to that?”
This question clearly went to a central issue in the wider context of the interview, namely the committee of MPs and their call to stop NHS funding for homeopathy on the basis that it does not work. Joanna Gosling further explored this point by stating that:
“One of the concerns that the MPs have voiced is that they fear that if people turn to homeopathy they might actually not look to conventional treatments that might be more proven to actually work… Obviously you turned to homeopathy as a last resort, but do you think that there might be an issue that people might hear a story like yours and think ‘Okay I will go down the homeopathic route to cure my cancer’ rather than other methods that do have scientific evidence to back them up?”
This also went to a central point in the interview and Gemma Hoefkens’ claim by acknowledging that while it was her own personal view that her cancer was cured due to homeopathy, there was no scientific evidence to support this link, leading to concerns that others would take an approach based on her personal account.
She then went on to ask:
“Have you come across any other case studies like yours, I mean the MPs are concerned about a lack of scientific evidence to back up whether homeopathy works or not?”
This again went to the question of the link that Gemma Hoefkens believed existed by specifically pointing to the lack of scientific evidence in the form of other cases to support her view.
Joanna Gosling then pointed out that:
“So it’s a very inexact science, and that’s exactly what MPs are worried about. They point out that any new drugs that are funded by the NHS do have to be proven by scientific evidence… “
She also subsequently and directly addressed the issue of homeopathy having a placebo effect again by asking:
“Do you believe that there is an element though of ‘if someone believes it will work, it does actually work?”
Given the nature of Gemma Hoefkens claim, we accept that there will inevitably be some in our audience who feel that it should have been met with incredulity and challenged in a highly robust manner, but given the examples above it’s clear that her claim and homeopathy generally were nonetheless subject to persistent, clear and direct challenge.
We also took the opportunity to forward concerns on this issue to BBC News Channel Editors, who explained that they were happy with the interview and added that the channel and other BBC outlets gave plenty of airtime to the alternate view, including the chance to hear from the author of the committee as he strongly put his case, as well as a debate that set out both sides and which was broadcast at 20:30 that evening.
I’d like to take this opportunity to assure you that I’ve recorded your comments onto our audience log. This is an internal daily report of audience feedback which is circulated to many BBC staff including senior management, producers and channel controllers.
The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content.
Thanks again for contacting us.
Regards
Ciaran McConnell
BBC Complaints
