BBC Trust report on news impartiality says too much weight given to politicians
A report by the BBC Trust into impartiality in the corporation's news reporting has criticised the BBC’s over reliance on views from Westminster, and for giving undue weight to politicians.
Politicians tend to "dominate views seen and heard"
It also concluded that the BBC lagged behind public opinion on contentious issues such as immigration and the EU.
Acknowledging the BBC displayed an impressive range of opinions, the report found overall that “it needs to exercise constant vigilance in maintaining this and should make efforts to ensure it is monitoring changing public opinion and reflecting this on air.”
“Westminster and national politicians can tend to dominate views seen and heard on the BBC, and therefore affect the range of opinions heard,” the BBC Trust said.
“The Trust has concluded that it expects the BBC to find ways of addressing opinions that have not emerged through Parliament or other formal institutions, although this will not affect or reduce the BBC's responsibility to report on Parliament and the views of politicians.”
Former ITV CEO and independent producer Stuart Prebble, who contributed to the report said: “…the BBC cannot afford to rest on its laurels and it should ensure it does all it can to keep up with the ebb and flow of public opinion, which means avoiding over-reliance on Westminster voices, making efforts to find new voices even if they are contentious, and challenging their own assumptions on the accepted consensus."
In response, the BBC Executive said it would appoint 'story champions' to consider whether all relevant opinions have been included.