TV channels must be allowed to air biased news programmes: BBC broadcaster

LONDON - Television channels should be allowed to broadcast opinionated and politically biased news programmes, according to veteran broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.

Attenborough, who has been broadcasting for the BBC for over 50-years, said that the large number of channels available to the viewers meant the strict rules governing impartiality on the airwaves were becoming outdated.

“I think that the multiplicity of channels makes a quite totally fundamental difference to the sort of television I went into which was a monopoly. If you are a monopoly, you have to be unbiased,” Attenborough said on the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show.

“But if you have 50 channels then maybe there should be areas where people should say, not exactly what they like, but at least be biased,” he added.

The 84-year-old’s opinions echo recent comments by BBC Director General Mark Thompson, who argued that British broadcasters should be free to launch an equivalent to United States’ right-wing Fox News channel. (ANI)