I have just signed theJonathan Bartley letter to Mark Thompson concerning the BBC language on the electoral reform debate. The BBC have decided that word reform is too positive and hence unfair. How out of touch with reality is the senior managment of this organisation?
Dear Mark Thompson,
We are writing to urge you to reverse your Orwellian guidance against the use of the word “reform” in reference to May’s national referendum.
Switch on BBC1 or tune in to Radio 4 any morning and you will hear the government’s plan of the day being described as “reform,” from the NHS shake-up to restructuring the education system. Either the BBC is biased in favour of government policies or it is interfering in the referendum debate by skewing the language used.
By its nature, the referendum will be a debate on the issue of re-forming the electoral system.
If the BBC continues to enforce this guidance, you will be hampering the free and fair debate that the country deserves, and which licence-fee payers demand.
We call on you now to acknowledge the true nature of the 5 May referendum and to reverse your guidance and describe reform of our failing political system as what it is – reform.