Editorial: A BBC walkout on the day when Northern Ireland expects election coverage

​The BBC in Belfast went on strike yesterday on one of the key political days of 2023. The stoppage was not billed as a general BBC strike, but rather industrial action by 200 members of the NUJ, which suggests a walk-out by journalists. We asked the BBC questions including how many journalists it has, how many went on strike, and why – if it was a journalistic strike –non news programmes on Radio Ulster were affected (that station reverted to BBC Radio Five Live for the day, with short local news bulletins). They did not answer.

This all happened during the council elections in NI, when people across the province turn to the national broadcaster for information, and its huge staff and resources (incidentally Morning View will give its assessment of the overall results on Monday, after all council seats are decided).

The BBC leadership cannot easily prevent a walkout. This newspaper is not one of those outlets that seeks abolition of the BBC, as others do in an age of Netflix and changing broadcast consumption. The BBC is one of the world’s most admired broadcasters and in fact it is one of the things that people think of when they try to articulate their Britishness.

It would be perilous for supporters of the UK if the BBC was to go. At the same time, many leading figures in the BBC themselves have admitted that there is an institutional liberal political bias. And while in NI there have always been fine BBC journalists, there is a very strong sense among unionists of a soft and subtle bias against unionism in the BBC. This paper has been concerned, for example, about coverage of legacy and indeed of matters such as public sector strikes.

No media outlet is perfect, but such a massive BBC walkout at this time might cause the public to reflect as much on the BBC’s still generous staffing as on the causes for which the action was taken.