Ofcom has dismissed a complaint lodged by Vote Leave that ITV’s coverage of the EU referendum has been biased toward the Remain campaign.
In its ruling, Ofcom said that in assessing the impartiality of ITV’s coverage it does not mean that balance is required in any “simple mathematical sense”, a finding that is likely to come as a relief to other broadcasters in the run-up to the EU referendum.
Vote Leave complained that ITV’s coverage has been weighted “heavily” toward those campaigning for Britain to stay in the European Union in terms of “[the amount of] airtime and how the packages are framed” [PDF].
As part of its grievance, the campaign submitted a “media monitoring” spreadsheet examining ITV Evening News bulletins, the News at Ten and Peston on Sunday.
Vote Leave claimed that between 6 April and 29 May, Britain Stronger in Europe campaigners were awarded 51 min 14 airtime versus “leave” at 39 min 29.
And in terms of the “framing” of news packages, Vote Leave contended that ITV “consistently” led on stories from the remain campaign, with leave limited to offering a response or “at best having second billing with our own story”.
ITV said its own media monitoring across all news and current affairs showed both sides have received “roughly similar” airtime, with Vote Leave given perhaps slightly more.
Representatives of Vote Leave have been given more air time and appearances than those for Britain Stronger in Europe in regional news programmes, ITV national news programmes and Good Morning Britain, according to the broadcaster.
In announcing its finding, Ofcom said: “The election committee noted there was no single ‘right’ way to measure coverage. The committee did not consider that is should place any significant weight on the data provided. The complainant did not identify and specific instance in which due impartiality had not been preserved or the due weight requirements had not been observed. “Ofcom has found that there is no evidence to suggest ITV has broken broadcasting rules in its coverage of the EU Referendum.”
A spokesperson for ITV said: “ITV takes its obligations under the Ofcom broadcasting code extremely seriously to ensure that our EU referendum coverage is duly impartial and gives due weight to the designated organisations.”
