BBC Newsroom. Image: Flickr / just1snap
The BBC promises to be independent, impartial and honest. These are glittering, noble ideas. They hover above the BBC like guiding lights, stars to reach for but never quite touch. They inspire the public’s trust. As a journalist working in BBC News and Current Affairs for four years those values were my master, the true bosses I strove to serve. Yet how those values are interpreted internally and externally is controversial and integral to the BBC’s battle for longterm survival.
Working for the BBC doesn’t mean that you undergo a lobotomy of your political views, as Andrew Marr memorably joked. My professional duty was to put personal opinions aside whilst reporting for the public. My role was to test all claims equally, submitting them to the same rigorous scrutiny. We all have a cognitive bias where we are quicker to accept facts and ideas that confirm our beliefs and prejudices and reject those that don’t. Working for the BBC means questioning yourself as much as your interviewees, checking that you are being fair to all sides, and listening closely to all.
