The BBC’s director general has insisted the corporation is not “trying to ingratiate” itself to Reform UK, as he defended its increased coverage of Nigel Farage’s party.
Confronted with examples of the BBC’s reporting on Reform, which has led the political agenda over the summer, Tim Davie told MPs the broadcaster was having to adapt to the fact that “the landscape politically has changed fundamentally”.
While Reform only has four MPs, he said there was an “active discussion” over the level of coverage given to Reform and smaller parties. He pointed to the significant fall in the collective poll share for Labour and the Conservatives, as well as Reform’s strong showing at this year’s local elections.
“Our only objective is to deliver fair and impartial coverage, and we’re always listening when people think we’re not delivering that and the balances are wrong,” he said. “We have got a challenge in terms of a new landscape. The two parties were 80%, now they’re 60%. Meanwhile, it is appropriate we look at the latest election results, polling and Reform.
“I think [Reform’s vote] was an estimated national share of about 30% – they got the councils, they got the mayoral contests. I think we’re trying to get the balance right. I think it is difficult.”
Appearing before MPs on the culture, media and sport select committee, Davie was confronted with a list of the BBC’s recent coverage of Reform. It included a clip of a Farage interview on a boat talking about immigration on the BBC Six O’Clock News, which had been taken from GB News, the rightwing news channel.
“I take the point on prominence and just the balance,” said Davie. “But again, I want to be blunt as well: some of the reporting that we’re trying to ingratiate ourselves to one party or lean one way or the other is, frankly, for the birds. What we’re trying to do is negotiate a new landscape, fairly.”
He said some critics of the BBC simply wanted the corporation not to “give voice to someone I don’t agree with” – a demand he said he would resist.
Samir Shah said while Reform only had four MPs, it also received 4 million votes at the last general election. The chair of the BBC said: “We need to make sure that we are adequately reflecting Reform voters in our coverage – their views and their attitudes as much as everybody else’s is important.”
In a wide-ranging session, Davie was also confronted over an error made in a Gaza documentary about children on the strip. The BBC was found to have breached the corporation’s editorial guidelines for accuracy by failing to disclose its child narrator was the son of a Hamas official.
He also stood by a decision not to broadcast another documentary about medics in Gaza, saying he had concerns about the perceived impartiality of the programme and wanted a BBC journalist to narrate it. Channel 4 eventually broadcast the programme in full.
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Davie also said the live broadcasting of a chant from a Glastonbury festival stage of “death to the IDF” – referring to the Israel Defense Forces – was “a very significant mistake”.
He said issues associated with the coverage of the conflict had been exacerbated by Israel’s refusal to allow international journalists into Gaza and demanded immediate access.
“I think we should all say that not allowing journalists into Gaza is unacceptable,” he said. “In my view, this is probably the toughest editorial coverage challenge we’ve ever had.
“There’s nothing like having a proper journalist with our standards on the ground doing the work. So I would ask us to get access and the idea that we can’t go into war zones is plainly absurd, because we’ve done that for years, and we know what we’re doing.”
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