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The panel, chaired by Sir Alan Budd, does not believe the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ has a systematic bias against business. Its overall conclusion is that "most of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's business output meets the required standards of impartiality". But the panel also says it "has seen a number of individual lapses and identified some trends which lead to repeated breaches of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's standards".

In October last year the Trust's predecessor, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's Board of Governors, commissioned the panel:

"to assess the impartiality of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ news and factual coverage of business with particular regard to accuracy, context, independence and bias, actual or perceived; to assess whether the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ portrays a fair and balanced picture of the world of business and of its impact on society more generally; to focus primarily on business coverage in mainstream output though specialist business programming should also be considered; and to make recommendations to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Trust for improvements where necessary."

The Trust discussed the panel's report at its meeting on Wednesday 23 May.

On behalf of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Trust, Chairman Sir Michael Lyons has issued the following statement:

"The Trust is grateful to Sir Alan Budd and his team for a very substantial and serious piece of work.

"Overall the Trust welcomes the report and in particular the panel's insightful analysis. The report includes reassuring evidence of good quality journalism and we are pleased that the panel found no evidence of systematic bias by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ against business. That said, the report also includes some clear examples of under-performance and offers some new and interesting insights, in particular the contrasts between what the panel describes as sycophantic and aggressive interviews of industry ‘doyens’. The Trust shares the panel's concern about the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's predominant focus on the consumer perspective in business reporting if it results in the audience not receiving the full story. Audiences are also investors, savers, business owners and employees with a personal and civic interest in understanding the impact of business from a range of perspectives. The Trust is clear that impartiality means providing a complete picture and full breadth of opinion and the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ has a responsibility to deliver this.

"The evidence from the Blinc audience research is encouraging: ‘Audience trust in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ overall, coupled with its range of output, means that it is regarded as pre-eminent in accurate, balanced business news coverage that resonates across a wide spectrum of consumer needs’. Whilst this does not suggest the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ should respond complacently to improving its performance, it does demonstrate there is not a lack of trust in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's coverage of business.

"The Trust is satisfied that the evidence gathered supports the broad recommendations proposed by the panel about knowledge building, broadening the range of contributors and perspectives, and general monitoring of output. We will discuss these in greater detail with ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ management once the Director-General and his team have had an opportunity to consider the recommendations and respond to us before the end of July.

"The Trust will never tire of ensuring the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ remains impartial because it is vital to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's independence. We will continue to commission independent reports to help our work and publish these in full."

Ends

Notes to Editors

The Independent Panel's report, together with appendices, which include the output analysis carried out by Leeds University and audience research carried out by Blinc Partnership is available in full here.

The panel's review covered the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's UK domestic public service output only.

This is the third impartiality review of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ coverage to be carried out by an independent panel. The subject for review and the terms of reference were published by the Governors in October 2006.

Brief biographical information about the members of the Independent Panel is included in the panel's report. The members were:

• Sir Alan Budd (Chairman)
• Stephen Jukes
• Chris Bones
• Barbara Stocking
• Professor John Naughton
• Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson