London, 8 December. A new report, published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, reveals that the BBC has failed in its professional duty to report accurately and objectively on the issue of climate change, one of the biggest scientific and political stories of our time.
Written by Christopher Booker, one of the UK’s most seasoned journalists, the report critically reviews the BBC’s coverage of climate change issues against its statutory obligation to report ‘with due accuracy and impartiality’.
His report, The BBC and Climate Change: A Triple Betrayal, shows that the BBC has not only failed in its professional duty to report fully and accurately: it has betrayed its own principles, in three respects:
First, it has betrayed its statutory obligation to be impartial, using the excuse that any dissent from the official orthodoxy was so insignificant that it should just be ignored or made to look ridiculous.
Second, it has betrayed the principles of responsible journalism, by allowing its coverage to become so one-sided that it has too often amounted to no more than propaganda.
Third, it has betrayed the fundamental principles of science, which relies on unrelenting scepticism towards any theory until it can be shown to provide a comprehensive explanation for the observed evidence.
“Above all, the BBC has been guilty of abusing the trust of its audience, and of all those compelled to pay for it. On one of the most important and far-reaching issues of our time, its coverage has been so tendentious that it has given its viewers a picture not just misleading but at times even fraudulent,” Christopher Booker said.
In the foreword to the GWPF report, Sir Antony Jay writes:
“The costs to Britain of trying to combat global warming are horrifying, and the BBC’s role in promoting the alarmist cause is, quite simply, shameful.”
The full report is available here
About the author
Christopher Booker is an author and journalist. He has regularly reported on scientific and political issues related to global warming in recent years in his weekly column in the Sunday Telegraph. His book The Real Global Warming Disaster: Is the obsession with ‘climate change’ turning out to be the most costly scientific blunder in history? has been one of the three best-selling books about global warming in the last decade.
Sir Antony Jay
Antony Jay has enjoyed a distinguished career as writer, broadcaster and producer. He was a founder and editor of the BBC’s legendary Tonight programme and is famous for his political comedies Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.
