Green Party ‘Media Blackout’ Petition Reaches 50,000 Signatures

A PETITION against the BBC’s “media blackout” of the Green Party during the European and local elections reached nearly 50,000 signatures yesterday.

Green Party members will head to BBC HQ at Broadcasting House in central London to hand in the Stop the BBC Bias in Election Reporting petition at 3pm today.

The petition argues that BBC News coverage of the European and Local Elections has been unfairly biased against the Green Party pointing out that while Ukip made gains in the local elections the Greens currently having a total of 162 councillors and are now the official opposition in Liverpool, Solihull, Islington, Lewisham and Norwich went largely unreported by the national broadcaster.

“This bias is not only evident in the almost complete absence of coverage of the Green Party during the European and Local Election results, but also prior to this during the campaign for the elections on Thursday 22nd May,” the petition states.

“Most despicable of all was how, in much of the BBC’s coverage of the election results, the Green Party were consistently lumped in with the ‘Others’ category and often removed altogether from statistical evidence.”

The Greens argued that this was an insult to the 8 per cent — 1.2 million — of the British public who voted for them despite the BBC priding itself on neutral and unbiased reporting.

“This apparent news blackout of the Green Party by a much-respected taxpayer-funded corporation is incredibly disturbing and must not be allowed to continue,” the petition says.

It echos an EDM signed by 89 MPs calling for the Morning Star to be regularly featured in BBC news coverage.

Via Morning Star