BBC Bias Digest

News-Watch

01:02 pm
05 February 2025

BBC Trustees reject Newsnight EU bias complaint

BBC Bias, News-watch, Reports, Statistics and Surveys, Withdrawalists | | by David Keighley
The BBC Trustees have yet again flatly rejected claims that their EU coverage is biased.
Conservative MP Philip Hollobone and Labour’s Kate Hoey filed a complaint about an edition of Newsnight on January 23, when David Cameron announced his policy of holding an ‘in/out’ referendum.
The programme contained just one ‘come-outer’ (UKIP’s Nigel Farage) ranged against battery of 17 studio guests and contributors who were in different ways against the referendum, in favour of staying in the EU or increasing its powers. The Trustees say this was ‘fair’ because the programme was considering the political context and implications of the issues raised by Mr Cameron and therefore the number of supporters of withdrawal was immaterial.
Philip Hollobone Newsnight complaint here: 
BBC response here: 
Transcript of Newsnight programme here:
Is the BBC properly balanced and impartial in its reporting of complex issues such as the EU, immigration and climate change?

Is the BBC properly balanced and impartial in its reporting of complex issues such as the EU, immigration and climate change?

BBC Bias, News-watch | | by Andrew
For more than 15 years, Newswatch has been investigating BBC output using a systematic process of transcription logging and detailed analysis. The answer, in certain key respects – especially with regard to the EU – is a resounding and disturbing ‘no’.
Especially prominent in the data is a consistent and systematic failure to investigate or allow or even facilitate the articulation of the arguments in favour of withdrawal from the EU.
Yet the corporation refuses to engage with the research, or to conduct truly independent assessments of its own. Its tactics are rather to attempt to shout down or ridicule those who disagree with it.
The purpose of this site is to provide an internet platform through which issues of BBC bias can be properly aired and understood.
Emphatically, it is not a ‘bash the BBC’ platform, and it has no political axe to grind.
But the corporation must also recognise that in this area, it is often its own worst enemy.
This is because there is a collective refusal, from the Trustees downwards, and across the entire complaints process, to allow genuinely independent investigation of bias claims.
The only exception to this came in 2004/5, when in the interregnum between Labour-appointed chairmen of the then Governors, Lord Ryder, the Conservative peer, as acting chairman, commissioned a report from Lord Wilson of Dinton, the former cabinet secretary. Lord Wilson’s Commission was made up of leading figures with a cross-section of views about the EU. It found extensive evidence of bias and warned the Corporation that it must radically improve carry more, and more varied news about the EU.

Photo by winnifredxoxo

Hot off the Press: Latest Newswatch EU Survey Covering Summer 2013

BBC Bias, News-watch | | by Andrew
Newswatch’s latest survey shows that the BBC continues to ignore the case for withdrawal.
Only 513 words in 13 weeks of the Today programme were ‘come-outers’ talking about their views about withdrawal. That was only 0.7% of the EU output.
There were only six such contributions, despite this being a period when the topic of withdrawal was central to the political agenda as David Cameron began negotiations for treaty change and UKIP secured 25% of the poll in local elections.
Today also failed to ask Conservative contributors about their attitude towards EU withdrawal. It was estimated during the period that one third of Conservative MPs had come to support withdrawal, but those who appeared were asked only about renegotiation. The report shows how the main thrust of Today’s coverage was to show that there was a return – possibly to a worse level than at any point in Party history – to Conservative infighting over the EU. Today continued to present Euroscepticism in all its forms through the prism of ‘Conservative splits’ – as it has done for the last 14 years of Newswatch reports.
The full report can be read here.
BBC ‘Enmeshed in Comic Relief’

BBC ‘Enmeshed in Comic Relief’

Climate Change | | by David Keighley

A BBC Panorama investigation into Comic Relief has shown that the charity invests in tobacco, arms and alcohol, despite its ‘holier-than-thou’ ethical claims and telling the public that every penny it raises goes to the developing world.

The real issue here is not solely Comic Relief’s hypocritical investment policy, but rather the close relationship between the charity and the BBC – something which Panorama or subsequent coverage of its investigation has failed to spotlight or explain.

Every year or so, the corporation clears its schedules for Comic Relief. This is an extraordinary facility and it has led to the charity raising the staggering sum of £909m. It has become so wealthy that it can afford salaries of £130,000+ for senior staff.

The BBC supports Comic Relief not because it is an exceptional charity doing outstanding work, but rather because the corporation regards providing aid to developing countries as the ultimate good. Another reason is that Comic Relief is a cheerleader for schemes that they claim tackle ‘climate change’ – something which the BBC also intrinsically supports, in general reporting, at Trustee level and especially through the BBC World Service, which for decades has staunchly championed both overseas aid and measures to
tackle the perceived threat of ‘climate change’.

The BBC has worked assiduously behind the scenes over the years to support Comic Relief. An example of the cross-fertilisation and BBC cheerleading is that Lord Hastings, a former head of Corporate Social Responsibility at the BBC, was active for almost a decade in promoting the climate change agenda while sitting on the board of Comic Relief.

This rat’s nests cross-over continues to this day. On screen, the BBC doggedly – with clear disregard for normal rules of impartiality – pursues its climate change agenda; at the same time Tim Davie, who was acting Director General of the BBC before Lord Hall assumed the role in the summer, and is now chief executive of BBC Worldwide, has recently been appointed chair of the Comic Relief Trustees. One of his colleagues is another veteran BBC senior executive, the former Controller of BBC1 Peter Salmon.

Photo by KaiChanVong

Four out of ten ‘think BBC biased’, says survey

Four out of ten ‘think BBC biased’, says survey

BBC Bias, BBC Trust | | by David Keighley
An ICM survey has found that 40% of those questioned thought the BBC was biased in its news coverage.
The survey, commissioned by the Sunday Telegraph, also found that 70% of the 2,000 who
took part wanted the £145.50 licence fee reduced or scrapped. Fewer than 10% wanted
the fee to be increased in line with inflation when the BBC Charter was renewed in 2016.
Another finding was that around 66% wanted the BBC to takes advertisements in order to
generate revenues for itself.
Tory party chairman Grant Shapps has warned the licence fee could be cut or the collected
funds – worth £3.6billion a year – could be shared with other broadcasters unless the BBC
becomes ‘more transparent’ and changes its ‘culture of secrecy’.
Last month, Lord Patten, chair of the BBC Trustees, told the House of Commons media
committee that he was happy that 58% of licence-fee payers thought the BBC was a trusted
news organisation. Lord Hall, the BBC director general, pledged greater transparency in
dealing with mistakes of impartiality when they happened.

Photo by R/DV/RS

News-watch Survey – Winter 2011

News-Watch Reports | | by Andrew

This survey investigates the Today programme’s coverage of EU news and current affairs for an eleven-week interval between Monday 3 October and Saturday 17 December 2011. Newswatch  monitored and analysed each edition of the programme in its entirety. All programme items were timed and logged, and all which were relevant to the European Union or its relationship with the UK were transcribed in full.

Unpublished Research Paper – Summer 2011

News-Watch Reports | | by Andrew

Although News-watch carried out a monitoring project as usual in Summer 2011, a full report on the survey was not compiled.  Instead, the statistics gathered were utilised in subsequent reports, and time instead was spent compiling a research paper providing a longditudinal overview of the work we had completed since 1999, looking at issues including Withdrawal, Bias by Omission, and the BBC Complaints Procedure.