The British public believes ITV to be the most politically neutral broadcaster, followed by Channel 4 and then BBC, according to a new poll.
Independent research agency BMG surveyed more than 1,000 adults in the UK to find out whether they believed the country’s top broadcasters were politically neutral or biased in their journalism.
The results found that 45 per cent of people believed ITV to have balanced reporting with 41 per cent saying Channel 4 was politically neutral and 37 per cent saying the same of the BBC.
Sky News was trusted to be politically neutral by 32 per cent of those questioned with slightly more people (11 per cent) believing it was biased towards right-wing views than left-wing (7 per cent).
Russia Today was seen as the least balanced broadcaster, with only 11 per cent describing it as politically neutral and 13 per cent saying it was strongly biased towards left-wing views.
BMG reveals public perceptions of broadcaster impartiality in the UKDespite the BBC’s commitment to treat all subjects with due impartiality, more people believed the BBC to be politically biased than neutral, with a total of 40 per cent saying it was biased towards the left or right.
However, when the respondents own ideological beliefs are taken into account, the amount is spread quite evenly with 41 per cent of those with left-wing views saying the BBC is biased towards the right and 52 per cent of those on the right considering the BBC to be left-leaning.
BMG said in its report that it decided to conduct the poll due to “claims of partisan reporting” coming from all angles.
BMG said: “Those on the left of the political spectrum tend to argue that the BBC has a ‘right-wing’, ‘pro-business’, or ‘conservative’ bias.
“Similarly, those who could be considered on the right of the political spectrum reportedly criticise the BBC’s output as overtly ‘left-wing’, ‘metropolitan’ or ‘liberal’.”
Picture: ITV News at Ten/Screenshot
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