Don’t allow abuse of reporters, BBC tells MPS

THE CHAIRMAN of the BBC has called on politicians to protect journalists from being booed at events and from getting abuse online after Jeremy Corbyn supporters targeted Laura Kuenssberg in the General Election campaign.

Sir David Clementi said female journalists especially were suffering “increasingly explicit and aggressive” abuse “on an almost daily basis” on social media. Sir David also highlighted booing and aggression at real world political events. He said: “It occurs in plain sight, at press conferences and political gatherings on all sides.

“Politicians cannot stand by and watch – they must confront any abuse, and make it clear that it is intolerable.”

Ms Kuenssberg, the BBC’S political editor, has been singled out by Jeremy Corbyn supporters as a target for misogynist online abuse and booing at events following claims she showed bias against the Labour Left. During the election she had to be assigned protection staff.

The experienced Westminster journalist also faced an online petition last year calling for her to be sacked. It was eventually shut down by 38 Degrees, the campaign group hosting the petition, after executives said it had been “hijacked, and used as a focal point for sexist and hateful abuse”.

Sir David told the Royal Television Society Convention in Cambridge: “It is the responsibility of our journalists to ask the question – even if it is direct, awkward or unwelcome.”

At one event in during the election campaign in May, Mr Corbyn attempted to call off his supporters after they targeted a Channel 5 reporter with booing. The Labour leader said: “Journalism and journalists are intrinsic to a democracy and a free society.”

There have also been incidents of booing and intimidation of journalists at Ukip events. Sir David said the trend was partly a result of some people living in online “echo chambers” where they rarely hear opposing views.

He said: “Truth and accuracy are under assault like never before. False claims travel the globe in an instant. And new media channels can speak, unchallenged, to closed groups of audiences.

“Questions about Government policies, which seem to some parts of our audience natural questions to ask, are regarded by others as impertinent and disrespectful.”