Screenshot from the BBC Two documentary 'Europe: Them or Us'. Credit: BBC
We in the UK are facing the decision of a lifetime, one that will affect all our futures. It raises many issues and questions. Yet journalists working on our major medium of public information, TV, cannot explore those issues, report their findings and tell us what they think. In fact, they are positively forbidden to do that by the so-called 'Impartiality' rules, which apply to all UK broadcasters. The rules should be scrapped and the legislation that imposes them should be repealed.
The BBC’s Guidelines, which implement the terms of its Charter, require that “controversial subjects are treated with due impartiality in our news and other output dealing with matters of public policy or political or industrial controversy”. While BBC compliance is monitored by the BBC Trust, Ofcom, which regulates other UK broadcasters, requires impartiality on all “matters of political or industrial controversy… on which politicians, industry and/or the media are in debate”.
