Ofcom has cleared Sky News's general election coverage after over 2,000 complaints about the conduct of presenters Adam Boulton and Kay Burley.

The media regulator received 671 complaints about Boulton's "heckling" of Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg during the Sky News prime ministerial debate on April 22.

Nearly 700 viewers also objected to the journalist's behaviour towards former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell during an on-screen spat on May 10.

Media regulator Ofcom further received 1,008 complaints about Burley's interview with electoral reformist David Babbs on May 8, which led to an online campaign on Twitter calling for her resignation.

In its Broadcast Bulletin, Ofcom opted to reject complaints about the Boulton-Campbell incident because it felt that the confrontation was between "two well-known figures, who would have been used to the cut and thrust of political debate".

As Campbell "effectively accused" Boulton of wanting Tory leader David Cameron to be prime minister, Ofcom said that it was "not unreasonable" for the journalist to defend his position.

"Adam Boulton did become visibly angry - but that does not, in itself, impact on the due impartiality of the content. We considered that although the tone and content of this exchange was unusual, it would not have been beyond the likely expectations of the audience for this channel," said Ofcom.

"It should be noted that the discussion at no time resulted in any abusive language or gratuitous insults. Therefore to find that these heated exchanges could not be transmitted would be an unnecessary interference with the broadcaster's and the viewer's right of freedom of expression."

Viewers objected to the Burley interview on grounds that she was rude, aggressive and constantly interrupted Babbs, who was representing campaign group 38 Degrees. They also felt that Burley showed bias against electoral reform.

While Ofcom acknowledged the concerns of some viewers about Burley's interview style, the regulator said that she gave Babbs sufficient space to get his point across and did not show favouritism to any particular viewpoints.

"Although we appreciate why some viewers might have been frustrated by the presenter's approach we believe that David Babbs was, overall, able to put his point across," said Ofcom.

"In particular, we noted that even during the parts of the interview where Kay Burley was repeatedly interrupting David Babbs, the interviewee was still able to get some points across to a limited degree.

"As such, we considered that the subject matter at hand was treated with due impartiality in line with the requirements of the Code for major matters of political controversy."

In the election debate, Ofcom found that Boulton's comment to Clegg - which was about an article in The Daily Telegraph - did not breach the Broadcasting Code for guaranteeing due impartiality.

The election debates had specific rules for the conduct of moderators, but Ofcom found that Boulton's actions were understandable in the context of the programme, in which the three leaders were responding to audience questioning.

"We also considered the programme was a serious and detailed debate on a number of political and policy matters during the general election campaign," said Ofcom.

"One brief comment by a presenter during a 90-minute programme (to which Nick Clegg had an immediate opportunity to respond) could not in itself reasonably cause the programme to breach the due impartiality requirements of the Code."

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