British Broadcasting Regulation

Regulation has played a major role in the development of British broadcast journalism. In a number of areas, British broadcasting regulation has been more rigorous and extensive than that in other Western democracies. British regulators have set high standards for broadcast content—not only in traditional areas for regulation such as taste and offense (the portrayal of sex and violence, offensive language) but also in journalism—requiring broadcast news and current affairs to be both accurate and impartial.

As well as setting content standards, regulators have also been closely involved in determining the structure of British broadcasting and assessing the quality of its program output. Regulation has extended to the scheduling and length of news programs, their resources and budgets, as well as the amount of current affairs ...