THE BBC is coming under fresh pressure over its coverage of Reform UK after a university study found it featured in a quarter of News at Ten bulletins over six months.
A study by Cardiff University discovered Nigel Farage's party featured in 49 bulletins between January and July this year, while the LibDems only featured in 35 despite being the third largest party in the House of Commons.
The study also found Reform was referenced in just under a fifth of ITV News At Ten bulletins, compared with 6.2% for the LibDems.
Ed Davey's party launched a Balance the BBC petition this week against what they perceive as "wall-to-wall coverage" of Farage.
LibDem MP Max Wilkinson wrote to Ofcom citing the broadcaster’s "substantive efforts" to carry Reform voices on most prominent news programmes.
The petition demands that the BBC be forced to commit to proportional coverage of political parties year-round and not just during election periods.
The Cardiff study of the two bulletins on BBC and ITV also raises questions about the scrutiny of Reform, given that in just under a fifth of cases there was no analysis or Reform's policies or claims.
More than two-thirds of references to Reform featured some footage of its politicians, including Farage in a pub.
Earlier this week, BBC director-general Tim Davie told MPs the idea the BBC was giving one party more coverage than another was "for the birds", adding the corporation was not “trying to ingratiate” itself to Reform UK.
But the study raises questions about the differing coverage being given to the two parties. On the occasions when stories included substantial LibDem claims, they received either high-level or some degree of scrutiny in half of them, according to the study.
The other half of the coverage did not question or challenge the party’s positions largely as a result of the limited airtime it received, the study said.
“Broadcasters have considerable freedom to make editorial judgments about the airtime parties receive based on a range of criteria,” said Prof Cushion.
“At present they appear to be applying greater weight to trends in opinion poll data as opposed to the amount of MPs a party has.
"While there are no rules on reporting party leaders, our study did find Nigel Farage was more prominently covered than the Liberal Democrats’ leader, Ed Davey – and often leading the news agenda. Broadcasters might want to consider the level of airtime granted to party leaders and the degree of scrutiny they receive.”
Davey said: “The facts don’t lie. The BBC is fuelling Reform’s rise by plastering Farage across our screens without providing the proper scrutiny the public deserves."
"We need the BBC to live up to its promise of accurate and impartial coverage that represents the whole of the UK, instead of pandering to Farage and Reform.”
A spokesperson for ITV News said the weight it gave to parties should be seen across all of its output, not one programme.
“We strongly refute any suggestion that we do not scrutinise all political parties and their policies regardless of where they sit on the political spectrum,” they said.
“Editorial decisions are guided by news value and public interest, with coverage reflecting electoral performance and significant political developments.”
The BBC has rejected any suggestion Reform are not being scrutinised, highlighting editorial guidelines requiring editors to take account of past and current electoral support.
When Davie faced MPs on Tuesday, he defended the use of a GB News clip of Farage on a boat in the Channel on the 6 o'clock news programme in July.
It was pointed out to him that this was rare behaviour from the BBC, which usually uses its own clips.
But Davie said this was "standard journalism" practice and he did not see a problem with using clips from the right-wing GB News.
