The BBC, Britain's internationally renowned television and radio broadcaster, has failed in its mission of impartiality and is guilty of a pro-European bias, according to an independent report it commissioned.
The report, commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation's Board of Governors, said there was a "serious problem" with the BBC's coverage of European issues because of its failure to be impartial.
"While we have found no evidence of deliberate bias in BBC coverage of EU matters, we have found that there is a widespread perception that it suffers from certain forms of cultural and unintentional bias," it said.
Over-Simplification
"In essence it seems to be the result of a combination of factors including an institutional mindset, a tendency to polarize and over-simplify issues, a measure of ignorance of the EU on the part of some journalists and a failure to report issues which ought to be reported.
"We think that the BBC's coverage of EU news needs to be improved and to be made more demonstrably impartial," it said.
It said EU matters were often reported through a Westminster prism -- the BBC was not airing the opinion that Britain should withdraw from the EU, because none of the Westminster parties stood on this platform.
Presenters appeared to be ill-briefed and "the problem of ignorance among BBC journalists must be addressed as a matter of urgency," it said.
Ill-Informed
The report said: "The public themselves feel ill-informed. Much is at stake.
"As the public service broadcaster, the BBC bears a heavy responsibility for raising the level of public awareness and understanding of EU matters without itself taking sides in the debate.
"We think it needs a conscious strategy to achieve this."
It said: "We were asked whether the BBC is systematically europhile.
"If systematic means deliberate, conscious bias with a directive from the top, an internal system or a conspiracy, we have not found a systematic bias.
"But we do think there is a serious problem. Although the BBC wishes to be impartial in its news coverage of the EU, it is not succeeding," it said.
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