Media Lies and Brexit: A Double Hammer-Blow to Europe and Ethical Journalism

Due to strict impartiality guidelines, British TV reporting is fairer. But even the BBC broadcasts more negatively than positively. An April 2016 report by Zurich-based analysts Media Tenor concluded that only 7% of BBC coverage of the EU was positive and 45% negative. It also found that the tone of coverage was more negative than that about Russian and Chinese strongmen Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Even Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad received more positive mentions than the EU.

The study also looked at the quantity of coverage from 2001-16 and found the EU accounted for just 1.5% of stories on the flagship News at Ten in 12 of those 16 years. As the referendum approached, coverage became more intense and more positive. However, the study concluded that “reporting about the advantages of EU membership has come too late and will not convince a public that has been accustomed to EU bashing”.

It was indeed too late and on 23 June 2016 British voters opted to leave the EU by a slim majority after a referendum campaign that will be best remembered for the lies told by leading campaigners.

On 8 March, The Sun ran a front-page story with the headline “Queen Backs Brexit” based purely on anonymous sources. After Buckingham Palace lodged a complaint, Britain’s press watchdog IPSO judged the headline was “significantly misleading” and not backed up by the text. On 15 June, the Daily Mail published a front-page story showing migrants getting out of a lorry in Britain with the headline “We’re from Europe, let us in”. However, police footage clearly showed the migrants saying they were from Iraq and Kuwait. In both cases the newspapers published small corrections on inside pages. But by then the false stories had become ingrained in the collective consciousness of readers.

It is easier for the UK media to get away with publishing untruths and half-truths about the EU because the British public knows less about it than do citizens of any other country bar Latvia. Asked by pollsters whether three simple statements about the EU were true or false only 28% of Brits answered correctly. Indeed, one of the most revealing signs of British voters’ ignorance was the fact that the most-searched EU question on Google on 24 June was “What does it mean to leave the EU”, followed by “What is the EU?”

Many British journalists also display ignorance of the EU’s workings – either because they lack basic information about its decision-making procedures or because it serves their mission to discredit it by cutting corners on facts.

In October 2011 the Daily Mail published a story – repeated by the Express and the Telegraph – on how “EU bureaucrats have banned children under 8 from blowing up balloons because they might hurt themselves”.

The article is typical of lazy, error-strewn British reporting about the EU. For a start, it refers to a “new directive” when this was a draft text. Second, “bureaucrats” don’t make EU laws – the Commission proposes them and the European Parliament and Council of the EU pass them. So there was no “new directive” and certainly no “ban” – the Commission merely recommended children under eight be accompanied by an adult when blowing up balloons in case they choked.

A whole industry has sprouted to produce these largely fabricated stories about the EU’s bullying and nannying. In his submission to the Leveson inquiry on the British press in November 2011, Labour’s former UK government communications chief Alastair Campbell said: “At various times, readers of UK papers may have read that ‘Europe’ or ‘Brussels’ or the ‘EU superstate’ has banned, or is intending to ban kilts, curries, mushy peas, paper rounds, Caerphilly cheese, charity shops, bulldogs, bent sausages and cucumbers, the British Army, lollipop ladies, British loaves, British-made lavatories, the passport crest, lorry drivers who wear glasses and many more.”

The European Commission’s representation to the UK even has a separate section of its site dedicated to these euro myths. The problem is, these stories are sticky and rapidly become shorthand for Brussels bossiness. And, as many studies have shown, rebutting dubious claims or downright lies only serves to draw attention to the untruth rather than debunk it.

It is hard to disagree with Lord Justice Leveson’s claim that when it comes to the EU, “there is certainly clear evidence of misreporting”. However, most Brits get their news from the TV, internet and social media, not newspapers. Added to this, the British press tends to over-exaggerate its importance and influence. In 1992 The Sun had over 3.5 million readers. Now it has less than 1.8 million. British people also expect their newspapers to be unreliable. A 2015 Eurobarometer opinion poll found that 73% said they did not trust their newspapers – the highest percentage in the EU. Finally, the link between media ownership and political influence is often overblown. The Mail on Sunday came out in favour of Remain, despite its owner being ferociously anti-EU. Likewise, The Times backed Britain staying in despite having the same proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, as The Sun.

Coverage of the Brexit campaign was often shrill and shallow. But the referendum was not all grim news for quality journalism. Much of the reporting in the Guardian, Times and Financial Times was balanced and even the pro-Brexit Telegraph published commentaries by Remain backers. Sky News Political Editor Faisal Islam won plaudits from the media by putting Prime Minister David Cameron and leading Leave campaigner Michael Gove on the spot in a 20-minute primetime interview he spent a week researching and rehearsing.

The referendum was also notable for the proliferation of fact-checking sites analysing claims made by politicians. The BBC devoted a whole section of its site to a reality check aimed at getting to the “facts behind the claims in the EU referendum campaign and beyond”. For example, it looked into the Leave camp’s controversial claim – plastered over buses and billboards – that “We send the EU £350 million a week”. “We don’t,” the BBC bluntly replied, pointing out that the money the UK gets back from Brussels is £161 million. Despite its close links to the Remain campaign, the pro-EU InFacts website also did valuable work in puncturing the myths propagated by both sides.