‘People might stop believing in democracy’: Channel 4 news chief warns trust in politics at all time low

‘One of my big concerns is that people could cease believing in democracy at all’

Despite being at the head of a publicly owned broadcaster, Dorothy Byrne is no stranger to controversy. Channel 4’s head of news since 2003 has been behind some of their most famous decisions, including allowing Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to give its alternative Christmas message in 2008.

Earlier this year she gained prominence for her Edinburgh MacTaggart lecture on the state of media, a usually dull affair that made headlines after she mocked James Murdoch and called Boris Johnson a “known liar” who shares a media playbook with Vladimir Putin.

This week, Channel 4 and Ms Byrne have found themselves once again in the headlines, following a dramatic leaders’ debate on climate change on Friday.

Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage had declined to take part in the debate, so the organisers announced that they would be replaced with ice sculptures that would melt over the hour.

A spectacle ensued when the Michael Gove turned up at Channel 4, with Boris Johnson’s father Stanley Johnson in tow. Mr Gove demanded to be admitted to the debate, but the other leaders present refused to debate a non-party leader.

In one of the few successful Conservative posts on social media, Mr Gove shared a video of the encounter on Twitter where he and Mr Johnson Snr debated with Channel 4 operatives, explaining that Mr Gove was “a leader” of the Conservative Party.

Channel 4 held their ground and the debate went on without a non-H₂O-based Conservative or a Brexit party representative. The Conservatives announced they would lodge a complaint with Ofcom, the regulator, and a source from the party suggested they would review Channel 4’s broadcasting license.

On this controversy, Ms Byrne would only say: “This was a debate for leaders only. Michael Gove is not a leader so couldn’t be in the debate but Channel Four News has told him he is very welcome to come on the programme at another time.”

However, speaking to The Independent a week before this episode, Ms Byrne opened up about the role of TV media and debates in British democracy, and lamented that certain politicians now avoid proper scrutiny.

Ms Byrne has also just released a new book, Trust Me, I’m Not a Politician, written in her pithy conversational style. This extended essay spans Ms Bryne’s career and ends with a set of recommendations on how to save British democracy.

A few beliefs underpin her book: trust in politics is at an all-time low, the British media is failing the country and both sides “talked tosh” during the European referendum of 2016.

She is concerned about the state of British democracy and says “there has never been an election like this in my lifetime”. She argues that the loss of trust in politicians is a great threat to democracy. According to Ipsos-Mori, only 14 per cent of those polled at the start of this election trust politicians to tell the truth.

Jeremy Corbyn, Sian Berry, and the ice block (Channel 4)

“Plato is the standard to which we should hold our politicians, [he] believed in the primacy of truth in any successful society”, she tells The Independent. “The British like to say that Britain is the mother of all parliaments, but your democracy is not working well if you’ve got such a low percentage of people believing in politicians.”

The EU referendum of course played a part in this: “We know that both sides didn’t always tell the truth,” she says. “How many of us would stick with friends who we know always lie?

“For some voters, the fact they haven’t got Brexit when they voted for it will inevitably decrease their level of trust in politicians; other voters will feel that during the referendum campaign they were told various statements by the Leave campaign which turned out not to be true. As I say, there is not just one reason for loss of trust”.

She adds gravely: “One of my big concerns is that at a certain point people could cease believing in democracy at all.”

These are also the themes underpinning the arguments she makes in her book.

“There is a form of information that has really high levels of trust, and that’s TV news,” she tells The Independent. “And not just because I work in TV news. If you want people to trust you, appear on a trustworthy medium.”

Channel Four’s Westminster HQ (Getty)

She believes that voters trust TV news, as it is held to higher broadcasting standards than newspapers. “Although voters don’t know exactly how television regulation works, they do know it’s regulated.” She adds with a smile, “I know that because when they want to make a complaint, they often say ‘that must be against your regulation’.”

She also wants to discuss her new programme The World According to Vladimir Putin. “You go to other countries, you turn on the TV and you literally see nonsense. My programme is just an hour of what people see on Russian television. According to Russian TV reports [for example], Theresa May is an alcoholic who is herself somehow behind the poisoning of the Skripals.”

This brings us to her five-point plan for politicians to save British democracy: “Put yourselves up for in-depth interviews; use the most trusted form of mass media in the UK – television; give us time to check what you say; be prepared to debate each other; and when you get it wrong, don’t run away.”

On asking Ms Byrne whether politicians appreciate the role of TV, she bemoans the lack of detailed questions put to politicians on their policies.

“In the past week we’ve had a whole slew of policies announced by all parties to the extent that they even they themselves are not entirely sure they understand what they all mean.”

She fears the days of long press conferences are over. “If that’s not going to happen, I think doing the debates is really good. And when politicians are out and about they should answer questions in depth and at length every day.”

But why do they seem more reluctant to expose themselves to this scrutiny? The case of Boris Johnson refusing to be interviewed by Andrew Neil is a case in point.

“Journalists have to think about their responsibilities as well”, she says. “In the past a very aggressive form of interview was popular with some journalists.”

She continues: “If viewers think journalists are too aggressive, they send us complaints. We listen to them and we look at that again.”

She also has some sympathy for politicians, dismissed as out of touch and deluged with abuse and threats of violence as of late. “I hear people say, ‘MPs are out of touch’, but actually the vast majority of MPs I’ve ever known have spent lots of time dealing with constituents’ problems; people who have very difficult lives.

“Politicians are really brave people, and they go out every day nowadays knowing, to quote Jess Philips ‘someone could kill me at any time’.”

She adds firmly: “We should admire them for wanting to go into politics to do something good for their country. Whether we think they’re doing it or not is a different issue, but a lot of them are highly educated and could have earned a lot of money somewhere else.”

Ms Byrne ends on a defiant note with a comment that suggests a great amount of experience dealing with muddles like Boris Johnson's no show and the melting ice sculpture.

“We are regulated, we have no choice but to be duly impartial. If Channel 4 journalism wasn’t duly impartial, there are various methods that the regulator could use…

“But Channel 4 wouldn’t wait for that; they would sack me. But I haven’t been sacked, and I’ve been here 20 years.”