BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead has told MPs that impartiality is “absolutely critical” at the corporation as it covers the EU referendum.
Both Fairhead and trustee Richard Ayre pointed out that BBC staff are receiving training on the issue when they gave evidence to the European scrutiny committee on Wednesday.
Fairhead said: “We think it’s fundamental that a reasonable person looking at this will say that the BBC has absolutely done everything it could to make sure that it was broadly balanced.”
She said from what the trust has seen, the BBC is actively working at making sure the training is fit for purpose, and is working on the assumption that the referendum could happen at any time.
“It’s better to have the urgency now so that it’s locked in and then when the time comes ... we don’t even know how long the referendum period will be,” she said.
Fairhead said of impartiality: “We think it’s an absolutely critical value and critical part of the BBC. When we ask the public what is important about the BBC, it is that it’s seen to be independent and impartial.”
Ayre said the broadcaster is in “the final stages of devising a matrix of training” with the intention of it reaching every BBC journalist.
Viewers and listeners will be “more than ready” to point out bias in the BBC’s coverage, he added.
Ayre said: “If you’re question is ‘does the BBC Trust and does the BBC executive recognise that in the runup to and during the EU referendum the BBC will be under ever more scrutiny, possibly more than in its post-war history?’ Yes, yes, we absolutely do. The scrutiny, in my submission, will come from 50 million people who watch and listen to our programmes, and will be more than ready to tell us when they think the BBC has not acted impartially.”
MPs on the European scrutiny committee have previously accused the BBC of bias in its coverage of the EU.
In March, it published a report expressing “grave concern” over the corporation’s lack of coverage of the committee’s activities and scrutiny of the European Union.
The committee said it “remains deeply concerned” about the BBC’s treatment of EU issues and “concludes that the BBC has not yet demonstrated that it commands wide confidence in its coverage of the EU”.
