The BBC has reminded MPs not to interfere with its independence after a House of Commons select committee expressed “grave concern” over the corporation’s lack of coverage of its activities and scrutiny of the European Union.
The European Scrutiny Committee, headed by Tory MP Sir William Cash, said it was “inexplicable” that the BBC had not devoted more airtime to the appearance before MPs earlier this month by Hall and the corporation’s news chief James Harding, or its “seminal” recommendations about EU issues in 2013.
The committee, in its report published on Wednesday, said it “deeply regretted” that it had to make “repeated” requests for the BBC’s director general Tony Hall, and former BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten, to appear before it.
“We are gravely concerned that despite our clear message that we would have expected that the BBC would give full coverage to the proceedings attended by Lord Hall and James Harding, apart from a broadcast on BBC Parliament after the session and a short summary of the proceedings on the BBC website, there was to our knowledge no news commentary, analysis or interviews on any of the mainstream programmes of the BBC of the proceedings,” said the report.
“We note in this context our continued concerns that there was similarly little coverage of our seminal report on European scrutiny reform of November 2013. We regard these failures as inexplicable.”
Cash told Hall during his appearance earlier this month that the BBC’s coverage of the 2013 report was a “serious mistake”. Hall replied: “I don’t agree.”
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”.
Cash added: “We deplore that fact that we had to repeatedly press for Lord Hall … as well as the previous BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten to appear before us.”
The current chair of the BBC Trust, Rona Fairhead, appeared before the committee in January.
A BBC spokesman said: “As Lord Hall told the committee, we are and will be impartial in all matters concerning our coverage.
“The BBC provides extensive coverage of both European and parliamentary issues and while we respect the committee’s role, it would obviously be a breach of our independence if a committee of MPs were to instruct us how to cover an individual issue or story.”
