Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with Ofcom regarding its ongoing investigations into alleged breaches of due impartiality and material misleadingness by licensed broadcasters; and whether her Department has assessed the wider potential implications of such cases for levels of public confidence in broadcasting regulation.

Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code includes rules to ensure news, in whatever form, is reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality. Factual programmes must also not materially mislead the audience. While ministers and officials have regular discussions with Ofcom on a range of issues, Ofcom, by law, carries out its regulation of licensed broadcasters independently of the Government. The Government does not intervene in Ofcom's operational decisions, including ongoing investigations which must remain impartial and free from interference.

Nevertheless, the Government is deeply concerned about the blurring of news and fact with opinion and polemic in the broadcast media environment. As the Secretary of State has set out, it is a dangerous place for democracy if people cannot trust what they see and hear. The Government is therefore exploring what action can be taken in this space, to ensure that audiences know whether what they are watching is fact or opinion.