The BBC’s pursuit of balance and impartiality can get in the way of the truth, Jonathan Dimbleby has warned.
The veteran broadcaster and former host of Any Questions? suggested that cherished journalistic values could hinder coverage of issues that require honesty rather than neutrality.
Dimbleby, 75, praised the “candour and compassion” of his father, Richard Dimbleby’s BBC radio report from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, and said that modern autocrats who sought to whip up hate against minorities must be “exposed for what they are”.
His comments come as the BBC and other public service broadcasters grapple with how best to keep audiences informed at a time of rising political polarisation. The corporation has faced criticism for adopting a “he said, she said” approach
