Carte Blanche ordered to apologise

"The tribunal held that, judged as a whole, the broadcast succeeded in unjustifiably portraying Mr Diamond as a person whose integrity is questionable," the commission said in its ruling handed down on Wednesday last week.

 

"This result was in the main achieved by omitting to broadcast material made available to it and was likely to have cast a different perspective on the entire matter. A correction must be broadcast."

 

Diamond complained that M-Net, in a Carte Blanche programme aired on February 23, failed to provide him the right to reply on some allegations.

 

The programme reported on Diamond's alleged dealings with wedding venue La Montanara, and with the administration of an estate of which Diamond was the executor.

 

The broadcaster responded that Diamond was a public figure and should expect scrutiny, and that he had followed a "shotgun" approach and upgraded "minutiae to substantial facts".

 

It added that although a few errors had been made, they were peripheral and were essentially corrected within the context.