British broadcasters are subject to strict guidelines on impartiality issued in the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, underpinned by legislation and, in the case of the BBC, also the Royal Charter (see Indicator E7 – Code of ethics at the national level). These rules govern the representation of a range of views in political news coverage across all broadcasters. Section Five of the Broadcasting Code, on “Due impartiality and due accuracy” contains the following rule:
In dealing with matters of major political and industrial controversy and major matters relating to current public policy an appropriately wide range of significant views must be included and given due weight in each programme or in clearly linked and timely programmes. Views and facts must not be misrepresented. (Ofcom, 2019d: 31)
Broadcasters are also not permitted to give “undue prominence of views and opinions”, defined as a significant imbalance of views within their news coverage. Section Six of the Code sets out additional rules on the representation of views in coverage of elections and referendums. The ways in which broadcasters have interpreted these rules have been subject to criticism, with the BBC in particular scrutinised for implementing a policy of “impartiality-as-balance”, leading to the distorting reduction of complex issues to two-sided arguments and the unnecessary reduction of issues to areas of zero-sum partisan conflict (Wahl-Jorgensen et al., 2017). Evidence also suggests that UK broadcasters can follow news agendas set by the more partisan press (Cushion et al., 2016).
The UK national press is subject to a more laissez-faire self-regulation regime and has traditionally been much more openly partisan (Bayram, 2013). During perhaps the most divisive issue of recent years, the 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership in the EU, the UK press focused heavily on a relatively narrow range of sources, with certain voices – such as those of immigrants – almost entirely absent from a large section of the press. Coverage was extremely partisan in certain titles, particularly those most in support of the campaign to leave the EU (Moore & Ramsay, 2017). Despite this partisanship, however, newspapers rarely exclude alternative voices entirely in their political coverage, with titles offering space for commentary by, or interviews with, politicians from parties other than those supported by the editorial line. Some news sources, such as the magazine The Spectator, offer space to a range of opposing voices. The regional and local press is also less openly partisan than national newspapers.
