Centenary coverage part of BBC ‘bias’ against unionists

Mr Aiken, who worked at the BBC including its flagship ‘Today’ programme, said: “In my 25 years as a BBC reporter I can honestly say that, apart from a handful of individuals, the overwhelming attitude towards unionism in general and the unionists of Northern Ireland in particular was very negative.

“Most BBC people would define themselves as ‘liberals’ but that term shouldn’t be understood to mean a tolerance for other people’s views; on the contrary there is a very dogmatic edge to the BBC’s internal politics which has great sympathy for Irish nationalism and contempt for unionism.”

He continued: “The socially conservative views held by many unionist people - the disapproval of lax morals and abortion, for instance - are anathema to most BBC staff and these privately held, but never publicly disclosed, attitudes affect the way the corporation reports the news.

“The people who make decisions about what items to cover in BBC bulletins and how long each item should be notionally subscribe to a doctrine of ‘impartiality’ but this is a polite fiction which bears no relation to reality.”

Mr Aiken said the coverage of last weekend’s centennial march was but one example of that bias and that reporting on the Northern Ireland Protocol is another.

“The BBC’s news coverage faithfully reflects the political beliefs of the organisation. It is one of the reasons why the British public is given such a distorted and one-sided version of the argument over the Protocol; the BBC is - as usual -firmly on the side of Brussels and oblivious to the danger the Protocol presents to peace.”

The former BBC correspondent said that in his first book - ‘Can We Trust the BBC?’ - he described unionists as being one of the BBC’s “despised tribes.”

“Nothing has changed since that book was published. Unionists never have, and never will, get a fair hearing from the BBC unless the corporation wholly reforms itself,” he added.

Robin Aiken’s latest book is ‘The Noble Liar: How any Why the BBC Distorts the News to promote a liberal agenda.’

The interim head of BBC News and Current Affairs in Northern Ireland defended the corporation’s coverage of Saturday’s mass centennial parade.

Kevin Kelly said: “We carried detailed reports about this event in our BBC Newsline programmes on 28 May and 30 May. These included contributions from some of those taking part and combined pictures from the parade route with specially commissioned aerial footage.”