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WHEN REFORM ISN’T REFORM SAYS THE BBC

by Steve Beasant on 29 January, 2011

The following article was written by Paul Sinclair and was published on the Yes to Fairer Votes Website.

The UK may be debating electoral reform this year, but you won’t hear the BBC referring to it that way. According to an internal memo leaked to the Independent, the BBC won’t be referring to the upcoming referendum as “reform,” because it’s too positive a word:

In an internal BBC memo leaked to The Independent, Ric Bailey, the corporation’s chief political adviser, says: “Please can we make sure that we don’t describe this – in our own scripts, headlines, etc – as the referendum on ‘electoral reform’. When the BBC’s Guidance is published ahead of the referendum period, it will make clear that, in the context of the referendum, that is not an impartial term – ‘reform’ explicitly contains a definition of ‘improvement’.”

This is ridiculous, but consistent behaviour from the management of the BBC. If BBC management are suggesting that by using the word ‘reform’ in electoral reform they are implicitly recommending it to viewers and listeners, then by their own standards they have spent the last week advocating the government’s NHS reforms and the government’s education reforms before that because that is what they have called the measures.

Adopting the Alternative Vote is electoral reform. There is no other way to describe it.

The reality is that the YES! to Fairer Votes campaign has unfortunately had problems of impartiality before with the BBC. For months, we have seen the BBC and the No campaign dictate which of our representatives speak out for fairer votes.

But we know that our supporters only fight harder when they’re pushed into a corner. That’s why it’s more important than ever to spread the word about the YES! Campaign, and get your friends and family involved today.

Let’s tell Mr. Bailey that we actually agree with him one thing: this reform is about improving the system, whether he wants to say it on the BBC or not.

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