The press watchdog has rapped a city news website over a video it published that gave a misleading impression about a road traffic incident.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation found Edinburgh Live had published footage of the incident which had been altered externally to make it appear “sped up”.

The Reach plc-owned site said it had not been aware that the speed of the original video, which had been published on TikTok, had been altered by a third party prior to publication, but IPSO ruled a subsequent correction had not adequately addressed the misleading impressions created in the accompanying story.

In its story, Edinburgh Live had described a “dangerous near miss” where “an Edinburgh cyclist was almost involved in a collision with a BMW after they raced through without giving way to the motorist coming from the righthand side”.

The site further stated that “the cyclist careered through a roundabout without giving way”, causing the car to be “forced to slow down” and being “almost brought to a halt to avoid the collision”.

The story prompted a complaint from reader Phil Whiffin, who claimed it misleadingly suggested it was the cyclist who was at fault in the interaction, rather than the motorist.

Complaining under Clause 1 (Accuracy), and Clause 3 (Harassment) of the Editors’ Code of Practice, Mr Whiffin said the footage had created the misleading impression that the cyclist was speeding and believed the video was running at around two to three times the speed at which the incident actually occurred.

He added the video also showed the cyclist checking right before they entered the roundabout, and further claimed the story promoted the harassment of cyclists.

Accepting the footage had been altered, Edinburgh Live amended the story to remove reference to the speed of the cyclist and issued a footnote clarification accepting this point.

The site later offered to remove the article and published a further, standalone online correction and apology.

IPSO found the the cyclist and other vehicles were shown in the video as clearly moving faster than they would have in the actual events depicted and in a way that seemed unnatural.

The Committee considered that the video did not provide a sufficient basis for conclusions either about the speed of vehicles depicted or to what extent there had been the risk of a collision, which required a reasonably accurate assessment of the speed at which vehicles were coming into proximity.

As such, IPSO found Edinburgh Live had not taken care to avoid describing the video in a misleading manner when it stated that the cyclist had “careered through”, been “travelling at speed” and “race[d]”, as well as when it described the interaction between the cyclist and the BMW as a “near miss”, where the cyclist “did not give way”.

The Committee further found the correction did not address the inaccuracy regarding the cyclist pulling out “without giving way” and therefore ordered Edinburgh Live to add this point to the apology it had published.

The complaint was partially upheld, and the full adjudication can be read here.