Listeners of BBC Radio 4's coverage of Brexit are two and a half times more likely to hear the opinions of a pro-EU guest speaker than an anti-EU guest, a report by think tank News Watch found.
Researchers analysed 31 Radio 4 programmes and features about Brexit, which were recently re-released by the station on iPlayer as a series entitled “The Brexit Collection”.Guest speakers who contributed to the programmes, which total 11.5 hours of audio, were 58 per cent in favour of Remain and only 23 percent in favour of Brexit, with the remaining 19 percent providing neutral or factual commentary.
The report said: “There were no attempts in any programme to explore the benefits of leaving the EU, but conversely, Brexit came under sustained negative attack. This was reflected in the balance of contributions and comment contained within the items. “The balance of programme guests in all of these items was strongly – and sometimes overwhelmingly – pro-Remain.”
The radio station's coverage contained unchallenged predictions that Brexit would lead to civil unrest and rioting, as well as unsubstantiated claims that the nation's decision to vote Leave was based on racism and xenophobia.
The report also revealed a shocking bias rooted in the nature of the speakers chosen to appear on the programmes.
It found that speakers with expertise were chosen to add weight to the pro-EU argument, whereas ordinary people featured predominantly in the anti-EU debate. Express.
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