From: Matt Berkley Date: 6 February 2017 Subject: Factual error in World's Largest Lesson and related material To: alice@project-everyone.org Dear Ms Macdonald, Please forward the following to Mr Curtis. Thank you. Yours sincerely, Matt Berkley. .................................... Dear Mr Curtis, Further to our conversation on the 24th of January at Portcullis House, below is some evidence and correspondence. The most serious problem may be that the material has - like much output from others - encouraged many millions to hold governments accountable for the wrong "pledges". As I said on the 24th, the World's Largest Lesson has given the impression that the 1990-baseline MDG targets were what was agreed in 2000. In reality the Millennnium Declaration specified no baseline except "current rates" for the mortality targets. [Having searched through speeches at the Millennium Summit, I found no reference to 1990. The MDGs later proposed by civil servants were broadly less ambitious, being based on 25 years rather than 15. Leaders reaffirmed the Declaration right up to 2015.] I said the short film at the [2015] Global Citizen Festival [No Point Going Halfway] made a claim about progress on clean water. The UN does not have clean or safe water statistics. A third problem in the same short film was the claim about poverty being halved in 15 years. From the film captions: a) "In 2000 the United Nations issued the Millennium Development Goals" is incorrect. In 2000 the UN issued the Millennium Declaration, which is generally wider as well as more ambitious in its timescale than the MDG targets. b) "Since then... over 2 billion people got clean drinking water" Testing a vast number of water sources is not easy. The statistics are in fact on "improved sources" which refers to the type of source. It does not mean the water is clean or safe. c) "In 15 years extreme poverty has actually been halved" If poverty is where your resources are less than your needs, it is not clear why anyone would think they can measure it by looking at spending - and not need for spending. I have compiled a large number of excerpts from official documents at ungoals.org . In March 2012 the fact-checking World Service programme More or Less gave the wrong impression that the World Bank looked at prices faced by the poor. I complained about this a few weeks later and the team amended an article as a result. The More or Less team is trusted within the BBC as its source of expertise on global development statistics. Also in March 2012, the same programme correctly said, as did other news sources, that the UN statistics are not on clean water. However, that edition, like much news output from many organisations, gave the wrong impression that leaders in 2000 agreed the easier MDG targets. I informed the BBC of this error in February 2014. In an article published in 2003 I stated, "...it is an open secret among economists that the World Bank's data [for the global poverty claims] are not comparable across either countries or time, even for the income or expenditure part of the equation" Discoverer of Global Poverty Error Calls for Statistics on Survival https://web.archive.org/web/20070223160812/http:/www.addistribune.com/Archives/2003/11/28-11-03/Discoverer.htm After correspondence with the BBC in 2003-6 and later complaints, More or Less presented this view, apparently for the first time, in July 2015. [The BBC then broke its rules by taking the unusual step of removing the podcast without comment.] In July 2015 the BBC Trustees accepted publicly that in 2000 leaders did promise more than the later MDG targets on mortality. Despite this, and despite the BBC's previous acceptance of other inaccuracies, it continued to give the wrong impressions about pledges, poverty and water. . These are not the only problems in widely repeated claims about global trends. What I want is people to be properly informed, and misconceptions rectified. I propose is that you give this your personal attention. One possibility is that you begin by asking yourself what you believe are the facts supporting the three claims above in the film. I can supply much other documentary evidence on request. Yours sincerely, Matt Berkley .............. Millennium Declaration and the baseline of 2000: "19. We resolve further: • To halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and, by the same date, to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water. • To ensure that, by the same date, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling and that girls and boys will have equal access to all levels of education. • By the same date, to have reduced maternal mortality by three quarters, and under-five child mortality by two thirds, of their current rates." http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm "Halving poverty in 15 years seems like the most pie-in-the-sky goal imaginable," said Mark Malloch Brown, head of the U.N. Development Program. "But it's really quite doable. And the people who can do it are right here. "This week they talk about doing something about poverty," he said. "Well, next week they can carry through."" Los Angeles Times 10 September 2000 http://articles.latimes.com/2000/sep/10/news/mn-18487 "...our goal, reiterated in the Millennium Summit, to halve extreme poverty during the next 15 years." Harri Holkeri President of the United Nations General Assembly 5 February 2001 http://www.un.org/ga/president/55/speech/rural.htm "The UN Millennium Declaration goal is to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people who do not have access to safe drinking water (currently 20 per cent)." http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2002/08/20020813153902jfuller@pd.state.gov0.2198755.html#axzz3uM2MKtrc “We, the representatives of the peoples of the world...commit ourselves to the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and to expedite the achievement of the time-bound, socio-economic and environmental targets contained therein.” Plan: "...Develop programmes and initiatives to reduce, by 2015, mortality rates for infants and children under 5 by two thirds, and maternal mortality rates by three quarters, of the prevailing rate in 2000 and reduce disparities between and within developed and developing countries as quickly as possible" http://www.un-documents.net/jburgdec.htm http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/WSSD_POI_PD/English/WSSD_PlanImpl.pdf "The core aims for education and health are stated in the UN Millennium Declaration." G8 agreement July 2005, Gleneagles, Scotland http://web.archive.org/web/20051027075956/http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/PostG8_Gleneagles_Communique,0.pdf "As the Yale philosopher Thomas Pogge has pointed out, the task has been made easier by moving the goalposts. Even before 2000, the World Food Summit held in Rome in 1996 pledged to halve the number of undernourished people by 2015....When the millennium declaration was rewritten as a set of specific goals, the baseline for calculating the proportion to be halved was set not at 2000, but at 1990. That meant that progress already made could contribute to the achievement of the goal... it looks very much as if, come 2015, the world's leaders will have failed to keep their (watered down) promises." Peter Singer, 2010 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/07/millennium-development-goals-un-poverty "We, the Heads of State and Government and high-level representatives... recommit to fully implement the internationally agreed commitments related to Africa's development needs, particularly those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration... " Future We Want United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio de Janeiro 22 June 2012 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/futurewewant.html "...contrast the level of interest in the MDGs today with their relatively informal origins (and the oft-forgotten fact that they were never formally endorsed by the UN General Assembly)" http://oecdinsights.org/2013/05/08/whats-next-for-the-mdgs/ "The EU and its Member States remain strongly committed to the [2000-baseline] Millennium Declaration" European Union 8 January 2015 http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/en/article_15930_en.htm ................................ Water "While target 7.C explicitly refers to access to safe drinking water, the indicator does not measure quality directly, and the assumption that improved sources are more likely to provide safe water than unimproved sources is misleading." Human Rights and MDGs in Practice: A review of country strategies and reporting United Nations 2010 http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/HRAndMDGsInPractice.pdf "The JMP [official monitors] also tempered any celebrations with a warning that the data collected only measured access to improved water sources – those that adequately protect the source from outside contamination – rather than assessed the quality, or reliability of the water supply, or whether water sources were sustainable. Testing the quality of the water at a national level in all countries was too expensive and logistically difficult, said the report. "As a result, it is likely that the number of people using safe water supplies has been overestimated." Millennium development goal on safe drinking water reaches target early 6 March 2012 http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/mar/06/water-millennium-development-goals Complainant to BBC, 11 July 2013: "...4. "Goal for access to clean water has already been reached" conflates MDG 7 (environmental sustainability), target 7C (safe drinking water/sanitation) and indicator 7.8 (improved drinking water). It thus overstates progress in terms of both number of goals met, and evidence for the water being clean. The official monitors' research is in fact on "improved", not "clean" water sources: http://www.wssinfo.org/data-estimates/graphs/ " Reply from BBC News Online 25 July 2013 to complaint of 11 July 2013: "...1) We have added the word 'targets' into the line about 2015 deadline. ...4) The clean water reference has been changed to "improved sources of water". ...7) The reference to the poverty line has been amended...David Loyn authored pieces - I've passed your email on to him to consider whether his piece needs amending." [BBC failed to provide a final reply, correct the claim about clean water in other material or stop making the false claim] .................................... World Bank do not look at prices faced by poor people Editor of BBC More or Less, November 2012: " You are correct that they use CPI. ...having considered your points I have decided to make one small change. The use of the word essential in describing the basket of goods could be misinterpreted as I take your point that much of the CPI is not essential for life. I am not sure if it misleads the audience in any real way but I have asked the online team to remove it just in case." Comment: He left the mistake in the podcast and other words in the BBC article giving the same wrong impression. Other key complaints ignored at all stages, including by the BBC Trustees. BBC: "people who live on $1 a day do not spend all of it on that basket of food" [Editor's Choice for global poverty: "Dollar benchmark", 9 March 2012] World Bank "dollar a day" team, 1991: "Ideally one would like to construct new PPP rates for the prices most relevant to the absolute poor, in which the prices of food-staples would clearly carry a high weight." [Same BBC team subsequently claimed wrongly that World Bank look at cost of shelter and health care. If they did - if these things were in fact comparable - it would not be a fixed amount of dollars per day in each country.] ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Matt Berkley Date: 30 September 2015 at 11:25 Subject: Re: Urgent. Factual error in The World's Largest Lesson material. To: Emily Laurie , sarah.williams@think-global.org.uk, thomas.pogge@yale.edu, Peter Singer , contact@therules.org, j.e.hickel@lse.ac.uk, carina@project-everyone.org Cc: Alison Bellwood Dear Emily, I spoke to Carina last night, and still urge you to let Richard Curtis know. As I wrote, John McArthur, formerly of the UN Millennium Campaign, has said: "Myth 4: The Millennium Declaration established 1990 baselines." http://johnmcarthur.com/2015/01/origins-of-mdgs/ I know that it might be hard to take in that what many people believe is not true. It does not seem right to me for people to say the UN agreed the easier targets in any particular year, without being able to point to a resolution. But even if the UN did mention MDGs, leaders clearly committed themselves to the more ambitious Declaration goals in 2005 and 2013. Other problems are a) The World's Largest Lesson and associated websites linking to inaccurate information from others, and b) omission of the actual pledges of 2000 in the Declaration. It seems to me important that people have proper information about their governments' pledges in order to hold them to account. Here are more examples of problematic content associated with The World's Largest Lesson: "Calling on all schools...Dear Principal, In 2000, the Millennium Development Goals were created " www.wlltoolkit.org/downloads/Letter_Template.docx "Amy West, Programme Manager at Think Global... Millennium Development Goals were introduced in September 2000? " http://think-global.org.uk/free-training-positive-development-stories-for-your-classroom/ "the Millennium Development Goals snuck into the world in 2000" http://www.project-everyone.org/media-centre/media/press-releases/first-global-cinema-ad-campaign.pdf "In 2000, the Millennium Development Goals were created" https://www.education.ie/en/The-Department/Announcements/The-World%E2%80%99s-Largest-Lesson.html "Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015)" cdn.globalgoals.org/2015/09/FINAL-Mekfa-Press-Release_9-Sept12.docx This retweet directs people to a mistake on the Guardian website: "millennium development goals – launched in 2000" https://twitter.com/TheWorldsLesson/status/591268316272058369 "(MDGs) agreed at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000. " https://www.wagggs.org/en/resources/together-we-can-change-our-world-mdgs/ "Millennium Development Goals 15 Years Later: How Did We Do? By Paul Abernethy on July 6, 2015 The year 2000 will be remembered as a pivotal year in our history. This was the year the world came together to set a group of ambitious goals aimed at eradicating extreme poverty once and for all; the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)." https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/millennium-development-goals-the-final-report/ "In 2000, world leaders came together to agree an ambitious plan to tackle world poverty and set eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015." http://practicalaction.org/beyond-the-millennium-development-goals "The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were set in the year 2000 at a United Nations summit." https://globaldimension.org.uk/resources/item/2170 https://globaldimension.org.uk/resources/item/2171 I was unaware of the difference in baselines until I read the work of Thomas Pogge, for example: http://www.crop.org/viewfile.aspx?id=218 Again, the evidence from resolutions and elsewhere is at: millenniumdeclaration.org/pledges.htm . Yours sincerely, Matt Berkley On 29 September 2015 at 22:14, Matt Berkley wrote: Dear Emily, To anyone who knows that there were historic pledges in 2000, this gives the wrong impression that leaders merely pledged the easier 1990-2015 MDG targets: "Millennium Development Goals: 2000-2015 [! - no-one mentioned "MDGs" in 2000] In 2000 the United Nations issued the Millennium Development Goals [!] , a set of targets...next 15 years. The primary aim of these goals was to halve extreme poverty by 2015. This target was met in 2010 [!]" https://www.tes.com/worldslargestlesson/the-goals/ In fact the pledges, unlike the MDGs, have baselines of 2000. That means, over the period 2000-15, about 5 million extra child deaths. On 14 December 2001 the UN General Assembly welcomed the Secretary-General's report of September 2001 which contained among other things proposals for MDGs. However, it did not say which parts of the 58-page report it was talking about. On 21 December 2001 and subsequently, the Assembly reaffirmed the Declaration - which has 2000 baselines. This is also incorrect and liable to mislead in the same way: "Richard Curtis. He told Newsbeat..."In 2000 there were some millennium development goals" " http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/33464580/ed-sheeran-coldplay-pearl-jam-and-beyonce-to-headline-anti-poverty-concert As I said, I have informed the Director of Royal Geographical Society of its error, to which the World's Largest Lesson readers are directed: "(MDGs) were set in the year 2000 [!] at a United Nations summit." http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Schools/Teaching+resources/Key+Stage+3+resources/Global+Learning+Programme/Millennium+Development+Goals+5-8.htm http://www.rgs.org/NR/rdonlyres/DF7FFD27-3E4C-4446-9F75-DABFB03A4AB0/0/MDgs1234.pdf "The MDGs are derived from this Declaration" http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Schools/School+Members+Area/Ask+the+experts/Millennium+Development+Goals.htm They are in fact a compromise between the previous, seven International Development Goals with 1990 baselines originally proposed by the OECD, and the goals of the Declaration. "MDGs were derived from this Declaration" can easily be taken, wrongly, to mean that the Declaration set the generally easier 1990 baselines. Many wrong statements have been made about this, which is why it is wise to rely on the actual UN resolutions: millenniumdeclaration.org/pledges.htm . I am afraid the statement about extreme poverty halving misleads as well, because the World Bank do not estimate what people need to buy or inflation faced by the poor. The idea that basic needs are met by a particular amount of money cannot be right, since for one thing there are no official statistics on safe water. Yours, Matt Berkley On 29 September 2015 at 18:29, Emily Laurie wrote: Hi Matt. We work on the worlds largest lesson - where exactly in our content do we make a mistake about this content? Sent from my iPhone On 29 Sep 2015, at 12:23, "Matt Berkley" wrote: > Dear Mr Curtis and everyone, > > I understand from Danielle Walker that the email below was sent to Mr Curtis' office on 21 September. > > > Millennium Declaration, 8 September 2000: > > "We resolve...by the year 2015... > to have reduced maternal mortality by three-quarters, and > child mortality by two thirds, > of their current rates" > > [to about 3.6 million child deaths in 2015, or 10,000 deaths a day - not the 4.3 million target based on a 1990 baseline, proposed later and of less certain basis in UN resolutions] > > http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm > > > "The declaration endorsed…halving by the year 2015 the 22 percent of the world's population now existing on less than a dollar a day." > > Reuters, 8 September 2000 > http://www.itnsource.com/en/shotlist/RTV/2000/09/08/009080017/?s=millennium%20summit > > > > 2005: "We, Heads of State and Government...reaffirm the United Nations Millennium Declaration....We call for strengthened cooperation between the United Nations and national and regional parliaments, in particular through the Inter-Parliamentary Union, with a view to furthering all aspects of the Millennium Declaration" > > http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Attach/Indicators/ares60_1_2005summit_eng.pdf > > > > 2013: "We, the Heads of State and Government and heads of delegation…reaffirm our commitment to the Millennium Declaration". > > http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/Outcome%20documentMDG.pdf > > > Further evidence: > > > http://millenniumdeclaration.org/pledges.htm > > > Yours sincerely, > > Matt Berkley. > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Matt Berkley > Date: 21 September 2015 at 15:48 > Subject: For Richard Curtis. Factual error in The World's Largest Lesson material. Fwd: Urgent: BBC set to misrepresent existing UN pledges again during next week's Summit > To: ajones@unitedagents.co.uk, dwalker@unitedagents.co.uk, aelliott@unitedagents.co.uk > > Dear Mr Jones and Mr Kirby, > > Please pass the following on to Mr Curtis. > > Thank you. > > Yours sincerely, > > Matt Berkley > > > > > ............................................................... > > > Dear Mr Curtis, > > I am sorry to break this to you, but there is a common myth about Millennium pledges which you may be in danger of repeating in a few days. > I edit millenniumdeclaration.org - documentary evidence on UN commitments and research methods. > Following complaints, the Financial Times Complaints Commissioner and the BBC Trust have accepted that the later Millennium Development Goal targets are less ambitious than leaders' pledges of 2000. > > The former deputy director of the Millennium Campaign has stated that the easier baseline was not set at the Summit. > I am sorry to tell you that some of the information to which readers of The World's Largest Lesson are directed, is misleading. > Statements that the MDGs were set by a UN summit in 2000 understate the pledges and, ultimately, disempower the poor. > > There is no 1990 baseline in the Declaration, which leaders reaffirmed in 2005 and 2013. > > http://millenniumdeclaration.org/pledges.htm > Yours sincerely > Matt Berkley > > > .......................... > > > World's Largest Lesson: > > "Millennium Development Goals: 2000-2015 [!] > In 2000 the United Nations issued the Millennium Development Goals [!] , a set of targets...next 15 years. The primary aim of these goals was to halve extreme poverty by 2015. This target was met in 2010 [!]" > https://www.tes.com/worldslargestlesson/the-goals/ > > > > > > John McArthur, formerly of UN Millennium Campaign: > "Myth 4: The Millennium Declaration established 1990 baselines." > http://johnmcarthur.com/2015/01/origins-of-mdgs/ > > > > Financial Times Complaints Commissioner accepts the difference: > http://aboutus.ft.com/files/2010/09/Matt-Berkley-adjudication.pdf > > BBC Trustees accepted on 19 June 2001: [Note by MB 5 Februrary 2017: That should read "19 June 2015"] > > "Millennium Declaration in 2000" had "commitments...reducing child mortality by two thirds, of their current rates...by changing the base line to 1990...the [Millennium Development Goal] target…was...less demanding…". > "Trustees... noted his concern that the BBC had made similar errors over many years and that these had been the subject of other complaints” > http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/esc_bulletins/2015/june_july.pdf > > > "Richard Curtis. He told Newsbeat..."In 2000 there were some millennium development goals" " > http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/33464580/ed-sheeran-coldplay-pearl-jam-and-beyonce-to-headline-anti-poverty-concert > > > I have informed the Director of Royal Geographical Society of its error, to which the World's Largest Lesson readers are directed: > > "(MDGs) were set in the year 2000 [!] at a United Nations summit." > http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Schools/Teaching+resources/Key+Stage+3+resources/Global+Learning+Programme/Millennium+Development+Goals+5-8.htm > > http://www.rgs.org/NR/rdonlyres/DF7FFD27-3E4C-4446-9F75-DABFB03A4AB0/0/MDgs1234.pdf > > "The MDGs are derived from this Declaration" > http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Schools/School+Members+Area/Ask+the+experts/Millennium+Development+Goals.htm > > > > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Matt Berkley > Date: 18 September 2015 at 12:27 > Subject: Urgent: BBC set to misrepresent existing UN pledges again during next week's Summit > To: david.jordan@bbc.co.uk, jessica.cecil@bbc.co.uk, trust.editorial@bbc.co.uk, trust.enquiries@bbc.co.uk, ECU , James.Purnell@bbc.co.uk, paul.smith@bbc.co.uk, worldservice.letters@bbc.co.uk > > > > Dear Mr Jordan, Ms Cecil, Mr Towers, Ms O'Brien, Ms Fairhead, Mr Ayre, Mr Steel, Mr Purnell, and Mr Smith, > > Broadcast correction before 24 September: International commitments on poverty, and claims of progress. > > > Is the following not true? > > Understating government commitments to the poorest people on earth amounts to taking away some of the little political power they have. > > > In 2013, David Cameron and other leaders reaffirmed the Millennium Declaration, containing pledges with baselines not of 1990 but 2000. > > http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/Outcome%20documentMDG.pdf > > http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm > > It should not be difficult to confirm the BBC's error. > > The BBC has understated and given understated impressions of world leaders' Millennium commitments to the poorest, which in reality leaders reaffirmed in 2005 and 2013. > > It has done so repeatedly, despite complaints and a relevant statement in a BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee ruling. > > I attach further documentary evidence on what governments have pledged. > > Other relevant evidence is at millenniumdeclaration.org and poornews.org . > > UN members did not, as the BBC and the Trust claim or imply, agree generally easier Millennium Development Goal targets fourteen or fifteen years ago. They agreed, and reaffirmed, the Millennium Declaration. > > Leaders mentioned the Millennium Development Goals in 2005. However, they at the same time reaffirmed the Declaration which has more ambitious 2000 baselines. > > http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Attach/Indicators/ares60_1_2005summit_eng.pdf > > In effect they also reaffirmed the still more ambitious World Food Summit goal of reducing the 1996 number of hungry people by half (paragraph 17 states a determination to fufil goals of other major summits) to, by current official FAO estimates and methods, 500 million people compared to the 800 million now estimated. > > From the evidence in the attached document, it may take you no longer than thirty seconds to see that the General Assembly continued to agree the Declaration. The following is a very small selection of the BBC's errors. Others are at and via the websites above. > > The leaders' pledges reaffirmed in 2013 do not use "1990 as a benchmark" as the BBC's "MDG website claims: > http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1112_mdg/ > - repeated at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/africas_challenges/html/5.stm > > For the 2005 Summit the BBC blurred the line between the 2000-baseline pledges and the easier MDG targets: > http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1817_wawryw/page5.shtml > > For the 2010 Summit the BBC did the same: > "Forged amidst the enthusiasm and optimism of a new millennium, they were the first ever [!] set of shared development goals at international level." > http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/ferguswalsh/2010/09/global_health_declaration_-_ten_years_on.html > > http://www.bbc.com/mundo/internacional/2010/09/100916_milenio_objetivos_onu_economia_mj.shtml > > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11378604 > > More or Less of 10 March 2012 wrongly claimed the MDGs were agreed by all the countries of the UN in 2000. > > It is not clear on what basis of actual UN resolutions More or Less broadcast 3 July 2015 claimed the MDGs were agreed "around 2000". Its programme page has a clearer error. > http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02vmb62 > > The MDG targets were not established by the UN in 2000: > http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/policybriefing/bbc_media_action_health_on_the_move.pdf , note 1. > > After the complaints system repeatedly failed to give responses, I sent complaints on this to the Editorial Complaints Unit beginning on 6 February 2014, and later to other parts of the BBC. > > The BBC kept on giving false information: for example, the MDGs were "pledges" agreed in "2000". > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-31798171 > > The BBC Trust has committed to the public that all complaints on older material will be read to determine seriousness, and that all complaints received by other parts of the BBC will be forwarded to Audience Services for logging. > > After my complaint, the BBC continued to broadcast and publish misleading and false information on the international commitments, in a variety of languages. > > The complaint of 9 June 2015 is one example of many not answered - in this case despite a message to the Director-General: > > http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/6d70efd6-c5ba-4e25-8eb2-69fb35fb5348?sortBy=Created&sortOrder=Ascending&filter=none > > It may take no longer than ten minutes to see that you need to broadcast a correction before the UN Summit next week. > > I have yet to receive from the BBC Executive a specific response as to why it has not risked a lack of independence from the Editorial Complaints Unit > a) determining the outcome of complaints, > b) refusing to investigate, and > c) failing to ensure replies to complaints > on Millennium Goal indicators, after I pointed out its own error in a published ruling of 2005. > > In that ruling it overvalued the World Bank "dollar a day" by a factor in the range of typically 80-200%. > > http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/pdf/ecu_julsep2005.pdf > > http://millenniumdeclaration.org/Matt%20Berkley%20comments%20on%20BBC%20Stage%202%20provisional%20response%20with%20added%20emphasis.%20%20BBC%20ref.%201300394.doc , note vii. > > > I propose that BBC Executive inquiries in this area be carried out by people who have not made or allowed related misinformation. > > I propose that the BBC Executive and the Trust review the complaints, given implications for journalistic strategy and governance. > > It does not seem clear to me that I have, as the Editorial Complaints Unit has claimed, appealed all of the complaints about the baseline to the Trust. But by any common sense such technicalities should not matter. It is obvious that the BBC has misled the public. > > In my email of 16 September to Ms Fairhead via trust.enquiries@bbc.co.uk I mentioned disrespect to people the BBC claims to inform. Let me be clear: > > The BBC has understated government pledges to the poorest people on earth. > > The BBC has overstated reliability and relevance of official measures on progress. > > The BBC has risked to a significant degree promoting misconceptions on policy success or failure. > > The BBC has promoted misconceptions on the trustworthiness of politicians, journalists, academics, civil servants and others. > > The BBC has persisted in a variety of misinformation on extreme poverty, including on "safe" water, even after correcting some web pages after complaints. > > It is not difficult to see the following: > > Misconceptions on progress, policy success or trustworthiness of governments can lead to worse policy, worse government or misinformed voting. > > If you persist in broadcasting and publishing error, you are knowingly disregarding potential suffering which may result. > > If you report governments' or intergovernment agencies' statistics without considering whether they make sense, or are reliable, or whether the small print or real-life considerations are important, you risk causing real suffering to real people. > > I suggest that for next week you prioritise broadcast correction on government commitments, with prominence appropriate to counteracting the wrong impression given over many years. > > Otherwise you will have provided misinformation on even your own political leaders' commitments - pledges by Tony Blair and David Cameron - and then failed to provide the facts, in effect stealing political power from hungry people. > > > Yours sincerely, > > > Matt Berkley > > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Matt Berkley > Date: 16 September 2015 at 20:36 > Subject: Fwd: Urgent: BBC set to misreport UN pledges again at next week's Summit > To: trust.enquiries@bbc.co.uk > > > > Dear Ms Fairhead, > > Thank you for your attention yesterday outside Portcullis House, on the BBC's errors about Millennium Declaration pledges. > > The problems might raise questions of governance, news strategy and/or adequacy of the complaints system authorised by the Trust. > > The BBC has repeatedly stated, and implied, that Millennium pledges have easier baselines than is in fact the case, and failed to reply to complaints on this since February 2014. > > The evidence I mentioned to you is here. > > http://web.archive.org/web/20150821152153/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbctrust/entries/3950cd25-1120-46b3-9fe0-a9259677adfa > > As you can see, the relevance of my comments to your blog post is that the BBC is proposing to extend iPlayer and/or CBBC output, and I am pointing out defects in quality which might indicate a better target for expenditure and/or consideration. > > The BBC has also reported non-existent statistics for "safe" water, and claimed there are price data for a "basket of essential goods" since "a couple of decades ago". The errors have appeared even after the BBC altered web pages in response to complaints from me. > > Complaints beginning in May 2012 concerning factual errors, range of views and range of contributors in More or Less have hardly begun to be answered. Other complaints, submitted because the originals were not answered, have been entirely ignored. > > In my view broadcasting false information on government pledges and evidence for progress counteracts more useful work done by BBC Media Action and the BBC's charity efforts. It undermines democracy and is astoundingly disrespectful of people the BBC claims to inform. > > Further evidence is at: > > poornews.org > > Yours sincerely > > Matt Berkley > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > > From: Matt Berkley > Date: 15 September 2015 at 16:40 > Subject: Urgent: BBC set to misreport UN pledges again at next week's Summit > To: Trust Editorial , James.Purnell@bbc.co.uk > > Dear Mr Towers, Ms O'Brien and Mr Purnell, > I am afraid the ESC, as well as the BBC Executive, seems to have misled the public. > > There was no UN "commitment" to the MDGs in 2001. That is why the UN Statistics Division does not list any such resolution. > > http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/Host.aspx?Content=/Products/GAResolutions.htm > > The resolution which some people think agreed the MDGs is 56/95 of 14 December 2001. > > http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/GAResolutions/56_95/a_res56_95e.pdf > > It mentions the Secretary-General's 58-page "Road Map" but does not say whether it was interested in other parts or the annex containing the MDGs. > The ESC stated on 19 June 2015: > http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/esc_bulletins/2015/june_july.pdf > > "In the following year, 2001, the UN published a Road Map..." > > I am afraid that does not seem clear enough when we are discussing UN commitments. It was the Secretary-General's Road Map, not the nations'. It was a document written by civil servants, making proposals to the General Assembly. > The ESC stated, > > "It can be seen therefore that by changing the base line for measuring the reduction of under-five child mortality deaths to the year 1990, the target set in 2001 was a less demanding commitment than that made in 2000." > > Firstly, there were no 1990 baselines for any of the goals in the Declaration. Reuters, The Economist, the Times of India, the New York Times and so on said it had 2000 baselines. The BBC's error is not only about child mortality. > > Secondly, the ESC's statement seems clearly to say that there was a commitment in 2001 to the easier baseline. > > In reality, far from changing the commitment, the same resolution of 14 December 2001 called for the Declaration to be publicised; and more than one resolution of 21 December 2001 reaffirmed the Declaration - as did leaders in 2005 at the World Summit, in 2013 and in effect in July 2015, when the Addis Ababa conference reaffirmed the Monterrey Consensus. > > But all you really need to know for this particular point is that the BBC Trust is unable to produce any evidence for its message to the public that the easier baselines were agreed by the UN in 2001. > > Even when they mentioned the MDGs in 2005 leaders reaffirmed the Declaration in the same resolution. > > The Executive, as I said, has repeatedly given the public the impression - after the Trustees acknowledged the baseline change - that the easier MDGs were agreed by leaders in 2000. I confirm that the Today programme on 30 June and 1 July (8.35am and 7.35am) gave a similar impression. BBC World News likewise. > > The Executive has persistently failed to respond to complaints on these matters. > > I do not know why Mr Steel has written to me as if I appealed all my complaints to the Trust. I propose that the Trust immediately require the Executive to review the baseline error, using the evidence I previously supplied to the Trust Unit, for a possible broadcast correction before the Summit. So far both the ESC and the Executive have been misleading not only the public but also the BBC's own journalists. > > > > Yours sincerely, > > > > Matt Berkley. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ...... From: Matt Berkley Date: 29 September 2015 at 17:35 Subject: Fwd: Urgent. Factual error in The World's Largest Lesson material. To: claire.tarn@freuds.com Dear Ms Tarn, Harry Almond has just given me your email on the phone. Yours sincerely, Matt Berkley ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Matt Berkley Date: 29 September 2015 at 17:22 Subject: Urgent. Factual error in The World's Largest Lesson material. To: richardc@project-everyone.org, kateg@project-everyone.org, gailg@project-everyone.org, amandam@project-everyone.org, team@project-everyone.org, katef@project-everyone.org, kate.coleman@one.org, emily@project-everyone.org, deena@project-everyone.org, chris@project-everyone.org, harry.almond@freuds.com, carina@project-everyone.org Dear Mr Curtis and everyone, I understand from Danielle Walker that the email below was sent to Mr Curtis' office on 21 September. Millennium Declaration, 8 September 2000: "We resolve...by the year 2015... to have reduced maternal mortality by three-quarters, and child mortality by two thirds, of their current rates" .... From: Matt Berkley Date: 29 September 2015 at 17:34 Subject: Fwd: Urgent. Factual error in The World's Largest Lesson material. To: ajones@unitedagents.co.uk, dwalker@unitedagents.co.uk, aelliott@unitedagents.co.uk Dear Mr Jones and Mr Kirby, Thank you for forwarding the email of 21 September to Mr Curtis' office the same day. I would be grateful if you could forward this. Many thanks, Matt Berkley ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Matt Berkley... Date: 29 September 2015 at 17:22 Subject: Urgent. Factual error in The World's Largest Lesson material. To: richardc@project-everyone.org, kateg@project-everyone.org, gailg@project-everyone.org, amandam@project-everyone.org, team@project-everyone.org, katef@project-everyone.org, kate.coleman@one.org, emily@project-everyone.org, deena@project-everyone.org, chris@project-everyone.org, harry.almond@freuds.com, carina@project-everyone.org Dear Mr Curtis and everyone, I understand from Danielle Walker that the email below was sent to Mr Curtis' office on 21 September. Millennium Declaration, 8 September 2000: "We resolve...by the year 2015... to have reduced maternal mortality by three-quarters, and child mortality by two thirds, of their current rates" ...