Politician Presenters: How UK Regulation of Politicians Presenting News & Current Affairs Programmes Compares with Europe

Demos is the UK’s leading cross-party think tank. For more than 30 years, its research and policy ideas have been adopted by successive governments. Our mission is an upgraded democracy, built on a new deal to mend the broken relationships between the state, institutions and citizens.

This is the latest guest paper from Demos’s Epistemic Security programme, which focuses on securing the UK’s information supply chains, tackling vulnerabilities and building resilience against harmful influences on our democratic processes.

In this report, author and researcher Dr James Painter examines current practice and the legislative landscape around serving politicians presenting broadcast news and current affairs programmes. He finds that the UK is an outlier in Europe in permitting this practice.

About the author
Dr James Painter is a Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and a Senior Teaching Associate at the School of Geography, both at the University of Oxford.