By Stephen Cushion-
The representative UK survey we commissioned You Gov to produce about people’s attitudes and understanding of broadcast impartiality shows that Britain urgently needs a debate about how we want the media to regulate TV and radio in the future.
Do we want current politicians present programming, or do we want more partisan perspectives on our TV and radio? Lets debate and decide. Despite the numerous headlines and social media posts alleging that broadcasters routinely break Ofcom’s rules on impartiality, Cardiff university survey showed that a comfortable majority of people in the UK continue to have faith in the principle of maintaining impartiality in TV and radio programming.
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However, the survey also revealed that people who think impartiality should be regulated was lowest among those aged between 18 and 24 (57% compared to 72% of those aged 65 and over). This suggests that future generations will need more convincing of the importance of broadcast impartiality in the coming years.
Although many people can now access a wide range of online, social media and print content that is politically partisan, almost three quarters of people (73%) would oppose relaxing the rules on due impartiality to allow broadcasters to become more politically opinionated.
If those unsure are excluded, once again, it is the younger generation – those under 49 years old – who show the weakest level of support for opposing a rule change by Ofcom.
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Since these age groups increasingly rely on online and social media that is politically opinionated, future generations may become more accepting of partisanship in TV and radio programming.
A narrow majority also opposed Ofcom’s current rules, which allow current politicians to present current affairs programmes on TV and radio,. Unsurprisingly, people who would vote for Reform UK if an election was held tomorrow were the only group of political voters who thought politicians should present programming (44%) more than they who did not (39%).
However, the fact that 51% of people opposed this rule, which rises to 64% if we exclude respondents who were unsure, challenges Ofcom’s conclusions in its focus group research, which found that there was no public opposition to politicians presenting programming. Focused groups are not representative of the whole public, what is necessary
There is currently a consultation – now closed and under review by Ofcom – about a rule change related to allowing politicians not to present news programming.
New Evidence
However, our survey conducted by Cardiff University provides new evidence that reveals in a representative public opinion survey rather than a selective set of focus groups, that 51% also oppose current politicians presenting TV and radio current affairs programming – i.e. shows that see them debating news stories with guests – as well as formal news bulletins.
When further questioned about media regulation, we found that more people than not, thought UK broadcasters were failing to comply with due impartiality guidelines. This finding increased to a majority of people if we excluded unsure responses.
We further discovered that many people overestimated the number of times broadcasters had been found guilty of breaking Ofcom’s rules on impartiality, which, of the major news organisations, was just twice for the BBC over the last few years, and five times for GB News had been (although these were later overturned in a legal case). Once again, however, a large minority of people said they did not know the answer to the question.
Notwithstanding the lack of knowledge or confidence in answering questions about media regulation, our survey suggests that the public does not hold much faith in the impartiality of broadcasters and wrongly believes that they regularly fall foul of Ofcom’s rules on impartiality.
Broadcasters Fail To Sufficiently Scrutinize Political Party Policies
While a large majority believed broadcasters should be regulated for news and current affairs programming, the survey revealed that many people also thought UK broadcasters failed to scrutinise sufficiently the policies of the main political parties, compared to those who believed they did. This was most strikingly the case for Reform UK, where 40% of people thought broadcasters did not scrutinise the party well, 24% believed they did, while the remaining 35% said they didn’t know.
For Labour, a third of people thought broadcasters were not scrutinising the party well compared to 36% for the Conservatives. This was a higher proportion than those who believed that the parties were being well scrutinised, although a significant minority said, ‘don’t know’.
For the Liberal Democrats, Greens, SNP, and Plaid Cymru, the number of unsure responses was far higher in questions about the scrutiny paid to each party. This perhaps reflected the limited media coverage these parties often receive, as well as people’s lack of knowledge about them.
Finally, when we examined public knowledge of one of the most reported issues over recent months – net migration into the UK – we found almost two-thirds of people wrongly believed it had gone up according to the latest figures, when ONS data reveals it has significantly gone down.
We further discovered that a high proportion of people who consumed GB News were substantially more likely to believe that net migration had increased than regular consumers of other major broadcasters, including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Sky News.
Needless to say, the public relies on a far wider range of news sources than impartial broadcasters, including largely unregulated news and information across online and social media networks. Many broadcasters have also reported the fall in net migration in 2025 – sometimes at length and in detail.
Moving forward, the challenge for broadcasters – particularly those with public service media obligations – will be to raise public awareness about net migration when scrutinising the plans of different political parties, helping people reach an informed judgement about the merits of competing policies on this issue.
An Ofcom spokesperson said: “Our consultation was about the issue of politicians presenting news content following the High Court judgment earlier this year. It did not extend to considerations around politicians presenting non-news content, including current affairs programmes.
“We will be publishing our decision in due course.”
Stephen Cushion(pictured above) is a Professor at the Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Culture. He is the Director of Research Development and Environment and Impact at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture.
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