BBC Today ‘strongly’ pro-Remain says report

EXCLUSIVE

AN independent report into the BBC’s coverage of the historic week Article 50 was triggered to leave the EU has concluded that it “was strongly biased against Brexit”.

Analysis by monitoring group News-Watch looked at Radio 4’s flagship morning news programme Today and said there was “overwhelming negativity” about leaving.

It looked at six three-hour morning shows from Monday March 29 to Saturday April 4.

The report highlighted that the programme had 124 guests discussing Article 50. But only eight were “given the space to make substantive arguments that the future for the UK outside the EU would yield significant benefits”.

News-watch also said that during this period, BBC correspondents “displayed what can only be described as a strong common editorial bias against Brexit”.

The report has added fuel to concerns that the corporation has been covertly backing the continuing Remain campaign, despite being funded by the taxpayer through the licence fee and having a duty to be impartial.

The revelation has followed an article by Today presenter Nick Robinson where he claimed that the BBC no longer had a formal duty to “broadly balance” Brexit coverage.

The corporation says the journalist was making the point that the campaign was over but that the BBC remains “impartial”, including during the General Election.

The News-watch investigation found that, of those invited onto Today during Article 50 week, 61 contributors were pro-Remain against 42 who were pro-Brexit, although only 24 of those were “firmly” in favour of leaving.

In March, 72 MPs from all parties warned the future of the BBC “will be in doubt” because its Brexit coverage had been “pessimistic and skewed” against leaving the EU.

A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC has and will continue to cover Brexit in a responsible and impartial way independent of political pressure.

“The job of impartial journalism is to scrutinise the issues and interrogate the relevant voices, not advocate for a position. It’s precisely for this reason that the public trusts the BBC.” Presenter Nick Robinson