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London (pte026/28.01.2005/13:15) - The BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk has been criticised for not having enough coverage of the European Union (EU). According to a new independent report ordered by the board of governors, the BBC's coverage of the EU is not deliberately biased, but "needs to be improved and to be made more demonstrably impartial", reports the Media Guardian http://www.mediaguardian.co.uk . The report blamed ignorance of the EU among journalists, a tendency to polarise and oversimplify issues and the corporation's institutional mindset for "cultural and unintentional bias" in BBC news. The authors of the report have also warned that the need to sort out problems with the BBC's European Coverage will become "increasingly urgent" as the referendum on the EU constitution approaches.
A report by MORI research http://www.mori.com also found that BBC viewers and listeners believe the corporation "is not succeeding in providing basic accessible information on the topic of Europe, and urgent action is needed". It also recommended that the BBC "go back to basics" with a documentary series on the evolution of the EU for the majority of viewers who were interested in the issue but uninformed and embarrassed to admit ignorance.
"While we have found no evidence of deliberate bias in BBC coverage of EU matters, we have found that there is a widespread perception that it suffers from certain forms of cultural and unintentional bias," said the report's authors. "It is striking how much agreement there is about this among groups who otherwise disagree passionately about almost everything else to do with Europe. We think there is substance in their concern. Whatever the cause in particular cases, the effect is the same for the outside world and feels like bias," the report added. "There needs to be better and more impartial coverage of the EU to explain major issues to a wider audience," the authors concluded.
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