The open rights group infiltrates Radio 2.

[Stuart]

The BBC is to investigate how Professor Lillian Edwards was allowed on to the Simon Mayo show to talk about the Digital Economy Bill on her own without anyone actually finding out she was a member of the Open Rights Group's Advisory committee, and thus has a cause to promote on the BBC.


As the article I have linked to points out, by presenting someone as an expert on a subject, without declaring her connections to the group, and her own apparently rather biased publications on the subject, the programme appears to have violated the editorial guideline that says:

we should not automatically assume that academics and journalists from other organisations are impartial and make it clear to our audience when contributors are associated with a particular viewpoint

The article is at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04...ilian_edwards/

Now, I am against the bill as it has been presented because it appears to give a staggering amount of power to the government to monitor us and offers us little or no recourse if we feel we are being wrongly targetted. Regardless of whether or not you deal with pirated media, that is a bad thing. But, I don't think a trusted organisation should be presenting either side of any argument on it's own without stating clearly that they are.

I think there is so much anger on this issue that finding an impartial expert may well be nigh on impossible as there seem to be only two sides of the argument.

I think 'infiltrates' is a bit strong. This just looks like a case of a junior researcher not doing the background checks properly. It's no more or less than I'd expect from the journalism-lite you get on BBC Radio 2. I mean, the Simon Mayo show isn't exactly the first place you'd go to get an insightful debate on the big issues of the day, is it ...