Tory MP Says BBC Impartiality Reforms Should Be Extended To Cover All Online News

Conservative MP John Penrose said the government's media impartiality reforms must go beyond just the BBC's online services and address the "double standard" surrounding regulation of bias across different forms of media.

The government announced on Monday that Ofcom oversight will be extended to parts of the BBC's online public services, such as the BBC News website, "to enable Ofcom to hold the BBC to account in a more robust way".

The reforms were announced as part of the first Mid-Term Review of the BBC, in recognition, according to the government, that audiences are increasingly getting their news and watching content online.

Ofcom will also be given a new legally binding responsibility to review more of the BBC’s complaints decisions.

However, Penrose told PoliticsHome that while he welcomed this step towards greater regulation of online information, there remained a "double standard" across other online services where bias is not addressed in the same way as it is regulated in broadcast media.

The Tory MP, who is the former United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion in the Home Office and has consistently called on the government to do more to tackle the threats of misinformation and bias, said if a "double standard" was being addressed when it came to BBC online services, it should also be addressed elsewhere.

“Extending Ofcom’s remit to cover online BBC news makes sense, otherwise there’d be a double standard where their web news was legally allowed to be biased while their TV news wasn’t... that would clearly be wrong," he said.

"But if a double standard would be wrong for the BBC, what about all the other online news that appears in our social media newsfeeds as well? Why should we allow a double standard for them too?”