The scapegoat of EU news coverage is naturally… the BBC

PERSPECTIVE

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By Annamari Sipilä
     
      It is customary in Finland to admire the British media.
      And there is good reason for this. British newspapers and television are in a class of their own in many respects. However, there is one topic of which I would understand little if I was solely dependent on the British media.
      This topic is the European Union.
      According to the majority of the British media, the EU is a bloodsucker that takes away the UK’s money and provides senseless directives and criminal immigrants in return.
      According to this interpretation, the UK itself has nothing to do with decision-making within the Union. The "bad guys" in Brussels dictate to the "good guys" in the UK what needs to be done.
     
There are naturally exceptions to this method of reporting news by cutting corners. In addition to a couple of broadsheet newspapers, the BBC has on average a more balanced policy.
      One can usually find the EU one expects to find from the news of the BBC. That EU is neither bad nor good, neither well-functioning nor useless, but something in between.
      With these facts in mind, it is tragicomic that the EU news coverage of the BBC in particular is the target of continuous public bashing in the UK.
      The reason is of course simple: an institution that is funded out of tax money can and must be criticised, whether or not there is an objective reason for it.
     
On Wednesday, the heads of BBC News humbly promised that the broadcasting corporation would improve the quality of its EU news coverage.
      This promise came in answer to an independent report that was prepared in the early part of the year, in which the EU news of the BBC were branded as suffering from "unintentional bias" as well as "a tendency to polarise and over-simplify issues".
      The review was initiated by the BBC itself, tired of its constant castigation. An independent panel was set up to prepare the report, headed by former Conservative minister Lord Wilson.
     
There is nothing wrong with the main points of the twelve-page report as such. The report provides generally applicable instructions for impartial and easily understandable news coverage. Those instructions could be adopted by any member of the media.
      However, an outside follower of the news does not know whether to laugh or to cry when comparing the criticised news coverage of the BBC with the coverage provided by other British media.
      One of the most amusing reprimands of the report is that the BBC does not give enough voice to those who would like to see the UK abandon EU membership altogether.
      That is surely all that we need at this point.
      So it is not enough that the papers are full of people demanding that the UK quit the union. We should listen to the same story all the time on television and the radio as well.
     
EU issues were on the back-burner when British political parties campaigned prior to last week’s General Election.
      The situation will change in the near future. The French referendum on the EU Constitution will increase the amount of EU-related news even in the UK.
      The Labour government of Tony Blair wants the British to vote "yes" to the EU Constitution. The government needs to face an EU-negative press and a discouraging public opinion.
      The news coverage of the BBC will play a crucial role in the lead-up to the campaign for the Constitution. It remains to be seen how the publicly-humiliated broadcaster handles the issue.
     
The moods are downcast at the BBC anyway. The company plans to dismiss 4,000 employees in order to cut costs. On Thursday, the BBC staff decided to go on strike for four days because of the decision.
      The strike does not threaten the news coverage of the French EU referendum. The Chelsea Flower Show, on the other hand, will now be missed.
      The British majority undoubtedly thinks that it should have been the other way around. It is the BBC’s fault, once again.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 14.5.2005


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Pigs might fly - or play with toys (Column, 1.2.2005)

Links:
  BBC press release, 11.5.2005
  Panel report on BBC EU news coverage (pdf file)

ANNAMARI SIPILÄ / Helsingin Sanomat
annamari.sipila@hs.fi