Radio 5 Live criticised over news output

BBC Radio 5 Live has today been accused of an "almost wilful reluctance to define what it regards as news" by Robin Britten, one of the station's founding editors.

Britten, a former news editor at 5 Live and now a visiting lecturer at the University of Staffordshire, was asked by TalkSport to study a week of the station's output.

His report, which formed part of TalkSport owner UTV Media's submission to a BBC Trust review of 5 Live, highlighted the "growing confusion between topicality and news" at 5 Live. Britten also noted the station's "blurring of distinction between informed discussion or debate, and chat", reports The Guardian.

TalkSport has recently been waging a campaign claiming that 5 Live is failing in its service licence requirement to devote 75% of its output to serious news.

The commercial station complained to the Trust that only 45-56% of 5 Live's output was news, with many items falling outside of the remit, such as "entertainment-based interviews" and listener-generated features.

The Trust rejected the station's complaint in April, but said that it raised "some significant and valid questions" ahead of the planned review of the station and its sister network 5 Live Sports Extra.

In his report, published on the eve of the new quarterly RAJAR radio audience data, Britten estimated that as little as 50.1% of 5 Live's output in the week beginning May 9 could be classed as news, rising to 58.9% if sport summaries and trails were factored in.

"There is a growing confusion between topicality and news... [and] between informed discussion or debate, and chat," said Britten.

"I simply cannot understand why the BBC is not more specific about what it regards as news in the context of 5 Live. It seems to want to skirt around what, after all, is a relatively simple issue."

He added: "There seems to be a general shyness, almost a self-serving reluctance, to clearly define aims and purpose. I think it is extraordinary that the world's largest news-gatherer cannot - or perhaps will not - come up with the definition against which it judges the actual output of BBC Radio's home of continuous news and live sports coverage."

Britten said that 5 Live had "genuinely changed and enhanced British civic society" with its "direct conversation between the audience and decision makers". However, he criticised the station's "tacit confusion of topicality with news and almost wilful reluctance to define what it regards as news".

Commercial radio trade body the Radio Centre has also made a submission to the Trust review, which accused 5 Live of "suffering from an identity crisis and confusion over its purpose and role".

A 5 Live spokesman responded: "We believe BBC Radio 5 live has a clear identity, offering high-quality, award-winning news and sports coverage to over six million listeners every week."

In May, 5 Live presenter Richard Bacon hit back at TalkSport's criticism of the station's output, suggesting that it was a "weak and insecure" bid to challenge its rival network.