Nadine Dorries launches impartiality review into the BBC
Culture secretary Nadine Dorries has today launched a charter review of the BBC, which will examine if reforms are needed to ensure greater impartiality at the public broadcaster.
The mid-term review of the BBC will examine whether the broadcaster is “delivering for licence fee payers” and “consider if reforms are needed to help it achieve greater impartiality and build a more diverse workforce”.
Dorries also issued a legal directive for the BBC to “promote equality of opportunity” for people from a working class background, with the government setting a new target for 25 per cent of staff to come from low socio-economic backgrounds.
It comes after a series of attacks by Dorries, and other Conservative MPs, over the perceived impartiality of the BBC.
It has been claimed that the broadcaster’s journalists, and its political coverage, leans to the left and was anti-Brexit.
“The BBC is a world-class broadcaster but one which has to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape just like all broadcasters are,” Dorries said.
“The government is committed to ensuring the BBC is more impartial, more accessible and more reflective of our country’s variety of viewpoints.
“This review will build on our recent progress to make the BBC more accountable to those who fund it, level up people’s access to the job opportunities it offers and ensure it continues to work in the best interest of the public.”
BBC chairman Richard Sharp said the corporation would “engage fully and constructively” with the review.
“The mid-term review is built into our charter,” he said.
“We welcome it and we will engage fully and constructively. We look forward to working with government and Ofcom.”