BBC ‘must do more’ to weed out fake news

THE BBC must keep out fake news and ‘nonsense’ in the name of objectivity, the Culture Secretary said yesterday.

Matt Hancock told a conference that fake news was a threat to the media and to society as a whole.

Describing the BBC as ‘our best bulwark’ against disinformation, he said: ‘Like the civil service, the principle of objectivity is drilled into its culture, and I want public service broadcasters to be more muscular in asserting their judgment and objectivity.

‘Objectivity means stating this fact is wrong, and that fact is true, and not giving any airtime to total nonsense at all. Where facts can be established, your duty is to tell the truth.’

Speaking at the Oxford Media Convention, Mr Hancock said that Russia deployed state-run media organisations to ‘manipulate democratic institutions’.

‘This toxic combination of political and financial motives is not just concerning, but can also be downright dangerous,’ he said.

Mr Hancock also said the BBC could be ‘infuriating, bureaucratic and desperately in need of more diversity of thought’. But he added: ‘If we didn’t have the BBC today we would want to invent it.’

The corporation has previously come under fire for choosing controversial guests.

A spokesman for the BBC said: ‘The Secretary of State said that the BBC is our best bulwark against fake news. No public service broadcaster is doing more to tackle the scourge of fake news.

‘While guests will sometimes have uncomfortable views our job is to challenge and scrutinise them.’

‘Challenge and scrutinise’