Study proves BBC is ‘overwhelmingly’ biased against Brexit
The corporation's flagship Radio 4 programme, Today, has featured just 3.2 per cent of guests in favour of leaving the EU.
THE BBC’s news coverage of the EU shows overwhelming bias against pro-Brexit opinions, a study has found.
The report, titled ‘Brussels Broadcasting Corporation?’, monitored thousands of hours of radio and TV shows dating back to 1999 including the flagship Radio 4 programme Today.
Of 4,275 guests on Today between 2005 and 2015 who talked about the EU, only 132 were Brexiteers.
Put another way, just 3.2% of Today interviewees were anti-EU, despite consistent public support for EU withdrawal throughout this time.
The report, published by think-tank Civitas in conjunction with the group News-watch, also found that Left-wing Brexiteers have been consistently excluded from BBC news programmes.
Using specialist media monitoring techniques, researchers analysed 274 hours of BBC coverage of EU issues broadcast between 2002 and 2017.
They found just 14 speakers – 0.2% of those interviewed – were Left-wing advocates of leaving the EU despite an estimated four million Labour voters being Eurosceptic.
Between them, these 14 contributors spoke for just 12 minutes.
By comparison, two pro-EU Tory politicians, Ken Clarke and Michael Heseltine, clocked up 28 appearances during the same period. Clarke and Heseltine were given nine times as much airtime as the 14 Left-wing Eurosceptics put together.
It is determined to present its EU coverage in terms of Tory ‘splits’ and conveniently ignores the fact that vast swathes of Labour supporters voted for Brexit as well.”
It’s also come to light via the report that BBC chief Lord Hall and BBC chairman Sir David Clementi have “repeatedly” refused to meet a cross-party group of MPs including Labour’s Kate Hoey and Graham Stringer, and Tories Philip Davies and Philip Hollobone, to discuss the latest research.
Lord Pearson added: “Under the terms of the BBC Charter and the BBC’s guidelines, the BBC has to be impartial and must reflect significant strands of public opinion in all of its news programmes. This report shows it has breached that agreement spectacularly.”