BBC Trust Could Be Stripped Of Power to Rule on Political Bias

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The trust ruling over the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) could be stripped of power to judge on the claims on impartial coverage in favour of external regulator, UK Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said.

Whittingdale, who has been one of the corporation's biggest critics, said that it needed a “very robust system” to tackle impartiality.

“Whether or not the present governance is the right way of dealing with it – the fact that questions of impartiality are judged by the BBC Trust – that is an area which I want to think about because all the other broadcasters have an external regulator looking at the impartiality question,” Whittingdale told The Daily Telegraph on Friday.

The BBC has been repeatedly accused of left-wing political bias despite the principle of political impartiality embedded in its guidelines. In the run-up to the UK general election in May, members of the Conservative party accused the corporation of favouring the Labours while covering the election campaign.

After the Conservatives won the election, Prime Minister David Cameron appointed John Whittingdale as Culture Secretary – a move some British media commentators see as "going to war" with the BBC. The Daily Mail said, citing Tory sources, that Whittingdale was determined to "sort out the BBC" and cut or even kill the broadcaster's license fee.

The BBC's Royal Charter, which sets out the BBC's funding for a ten-year period, is up for renewal in December 2016.

The London-based BBC is world's oldest and largest broadcaster, employing over 20,000 people with an annual revenue of over 5 billion pounds ($7.9 billion).