BBC News must ignore false claims of Brexit bias and re-establish its authority Divisive issues have proved to be the undoing of the public broadcaster’s reputation

Brexit has been a disaster for the BBC. While rivals such as Sky News, Channel 4 News and ITV benefit from high public interest in such an incendiary topic, the BBC’s precious reputation is being shredded by relentless accusations of bias.

The attacks continued this week with claims that the BBC’s coverage of the European elections downplayed the success of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

Conversely, the broadcaster was accused by Remain supporters of neglecting the gains made by the Liberal Democrats and Greens.

i's opinion newsletter: talking points from today Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

All angles

It comes from all sides. The BBC has given a platform to Farage, who has appeared on Question Time on 33 occasions (prompting arch Remainer Andrew Adonis to claim “only Farage is allowed on the BBC”). The Brexit Party leader then used an interview on The Andrew Marr Show on 12 May to denounce the BBC as “ludicrous” and “in denial”.

For three years the BBC has suffered similar sniping over its impartiality. The news division has endured crises before – the aborted investigation of Jimmy Savile – but it’s hard to recall such a sustained and wide-ranging assault on its collective journalistic integrity.

The critics are not restricted to thin-skinned politicians and media rivals with commercial motivations.

Former Radio 4 chief Mark Damazer, once tipped to become director-general, produced a cover story for Prospect magazine headlined: “Could Brexit break the BBC?”

Roger Mosey, former head of BBC TV news, last month produced a Sunday Times piece (“Crisis at the BBC”) questioning the organisation’s relevance to younger generations.

The Observer last week published a long analysis headed: “Is BBC News broken? And if so, how do we fix it?” Among those consulted was Craig Oliver, a former head of BBC global news who became head of communications for David Cameron, taking a senior role in the Remain campaign.

“The problem is that the BBC appears to have lost its confidence and, as a result, too often substitutes balance for undue impartiality,” he said. The obsession with balance was “helping polarise the argument and is alienating almost everyone”.

It is usually social media that is blamed for polarisation, not an organisation dedicated to educate, inform and entertain.

Televised debate

In this fevered climate, BBC News has announced a bold plan to cover a Tory leadership contest that will be shaped by Brexit and the willingness of candidates to countenance a no-deal departure.

The BBC wants two televised debates on BBC1, one featuring all candidates and the other a Question Time head-to-head between the two finalists. Sky News responded by promising its own head-to-head debate before a studio audience.

Read More A BBC broadcast introducing 5G was cut short because the 5G stopped working

Now Sky is owned by the faceless US conglomerate Comcast, cynics cannot associate its news arm with its founder, Rupert Murdoch, owner of Donald Trump’s favourite network, Fox News.Sky News mostly escapes the charges of bias directed at the BBC. When Kay Burley and former colleague Faisal Islam were disgracefully abused on air by far-right “yellow vest” protesters, the journalists rightly received widespread support.

Channel 4 News was banned from Brexit Party events due to alleged anti-Brexit bias, but Farage gave it an interview last week.

The programme’s “Data, Democracy and Dirty Tricks” investigations into Cambridge Analytica, the election of Trump and the funding of the Leave campaign generated an unprecedented global profile. Brexit has been good for Channel 4 News.

Public funds

Not so for the licence fee-funded BBC. Damazer reveals that BBC impartiality scores – which increased during the EU referendum campaign – are now falling. It is the UK’s most trusted news source, but growing numbers see it as biased.

Fran Unsworth, its director of news, told Damazer that the organisation had been through “much bumpier” times before, such as Kate Adie’s reporting of the US bombing of Tripoli in 1986.

But she conceded that today’s “social media whirlpool” gives voice to online “storm troopers” and “amplifies the noise” of criticism.

Damazer wants the BBC to break with a culture that can prioritise balance over facts and give “credence to nonsense”.

The beleaguered BBC News division must “find muscle strength where it has been allowed to atrophy” and start experimenting with “current affairs statements” – big editorial projects that re-establish its authority.

The televised Tory debates might be a response to this argument. Almost certainly they will also provoke fresh claims of bias. Because while the divisions over Brexit remain, so too will the bumpy times for BBC News.

Twitter: @iburrell