Broadcasters – and especially those at the BBC – are being urged by the campaigner Gina Miller to refrain from harking back to the Leave and Remain arguments of two years ago and to focus instead on the process of the UK exiting the European Union.
In her view, there was still much too much reporting of a sterile Brexit debate that was still dominated by lies and untruths and too little reporting of the facts and figures surrounding the UK’s departure.
Ms Miller delivered a passionate plea for more analysis on future UK-EU arrangements in a speech after the presentation of the annual Charles Wheeler award to the Channel 4 News presenter Michael Crick at the University of Westminster. (19.6.2018) where she was the guest of the British Journalism Review.
“This harking back to the arguments of two years ago is not helpful. We need to be hearing about the position today, hearing from the experts, and the broadcasters should be asking questions to see what is happening, to see if we are we are exiting the EU in a way without hurting this country.
“We need all the facts on the table. We should not be harking back, we are Leavers now, but everything is being defined by Leave or Remain and I do worry it has become the way of defining people. We should find a multi-dimensional approach, not just Remain or Leave.”
The danger in the way the Brexit coverage was going was that those engaged in the debate were being undermined by personal attacks. There was too much concentration on personal issues rather than professional matters.
She was asked why she thought the BBC had not got stuck into examining the questions surrounding the Leave campaign’s motives and sources of finance.
In reply, she said she was critical of the BBC’s coverage. There was a problem about the time given to the Brexit debate by the BBC, the sense that the BBC had to give the “winning voice” the time it had, and that did suggest the BBC was treading water in its coverage.
“What I hope is the case is that the BBC is waiting to see how the debate goes, and then perhaps can be bolder in its coverage.”
She thought broadcasters could do more to hold the government to account and that could not always be done by minute-to-minute reporting of who said what; what was needed was more analysis
“We need all the facts on the table. We should not be harking back, we are Leavers now, but everything is being defined by Leave or Remain and I do worry it has become the way of defining people. We should find a multi-dimensional approach, not just Remain or Leave.”
The danger in the way the Brexit coverage was going was that those engaged in the debate were being undermined by personal attacks. There was too much concentration on personal issues rather than professional matters.
She was asked why she thought the BBC had not got stuck into examining the questions surrounding the Leave campaign’s motives and sources of finance.
In reply, she said she was critical of the BBC’s coverage. There was a problem about the time given to the Brexit debate by the BBC, the sense that the BBC had to give the “winning voice” the time it had, and that did suggest the BBC was treading water in its coverage.
“What I hope is the case is that the BBC is waiting to see how the debate goes, and then perhaps can be bolder in its coverage.”
She thought broadcasters could do more to hold the government to account and that could not always be done by minute-to-minute reporting of who said what; what was needed was more analysis