Media Literacy (Communications and Digital Committee Report)

Baroness Fleet Excerpts

Monday 16th March 2026 Grand Committee

[Baroness Fleet (Con)]

My Lords, it is an honour to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Healy, and I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, on her leadership in producing this report by the Communications and Digital Committee, on which I serve. I declare my interest as a long-time journalist, including as editor of the Evening Standard for seven years.

In the time available, I will highlight one key element of the media literacy report, which is fundamental to the future of media literacy—news. Where do we get our news from and can we rely on it? How can young people best be taught to analyse news information, and especially to identify misinformation and disinformation? TikTok and YouTube are the most-used news sources for 12 to 15 year-olds, but where can the truth be found?

The majority of Britons still turn to the BBC for news. For generations, the BBC was trusted to present news accurately and impartially. I fear that that is no longer the case. There are of course many examples every day of great and brave journalism on the BBC, but all the good is washed away by outrightly bad journalism characterised by distortion, bias and inaccuracy. When the BBC’s failings are exposed, their executives are begrudging to admit their errors.

There are numerous recent examples of the failings of the BBC that have had far-reaching consequences—the Trump edit, for example, in a recent “Panorama”—yet when the BBC’s most senior executives were told about the distortion of Trump’s speech, they hoped that no one would notice. A whistleblower exposed the cover-up; the BBC finally acknowledged its error and apologised. Trump has escalated his complaint to a $10 billion legal battle.

Why was no action taken once it was discovered, eight months before it was publicly exposed? Because the most senior executive, DG Tim Davie, and his head of news, Deborah Turness, saw nothing wrong in the edit. Does this portray sloppy editing, as they suggested, or blatant bias?

The BBC’s recent pronouncement on Holocaust Day that 6 million people had been murdered by the Nazis instead of 6 million Jews shows how deep institutionalised antisemitism is at the BBC. Remember too Bob Vylan’s vile antisemitic chants at Glastonbury. The DG was present and did nothing to stop the broadcast. How did these grave errors occur?

Danny Cohen, former director of BBC Television, told MPs in November that the BBC has

“a systemic problem which the organisation is unwilling to admit to and therefore cannot fix”.

He went on to say that until the BBC

“cleans house and addresses issues with biased reporting, poor due diligence, and open antisemitism … it will continue to face a crisis of credibility”.

Danny Cohen’s views are shared by many former and current employees. A dossier compiled by the former staffer, Michael Prescott, for the BBC’s editorial standards and guidelines committee presented damning evidence of malfeasance. Davie and Turness had to resign. Their removal does not solve the problem but just highlights the state of the BBC’s news division. This is central to our whole media literacy report. The challenge will be to root out the bad apples and train a new generation to appreciate accuracy, impartiality and outstanding broadcasting.

The answer is definitely not a new DG who is a former executive of Google, as has already been referenced today. Trusted journalism that represents views across the political spectrum must be at the heart of the BBC, with appropriately qualified leadership. I note that trusted journalism has nothing to do with funding; it is down to judgment. If the BBC cannot be relied upon to produce accurate and balanced news, which is essential to media literacy, levels of trust will fall further. A BBC that is not trusted is not sustainable. With the charter review on the horizon, it is more important than ever that the BBC gets its house in order.