Government accused of ‘culture wars’ over BBC impartiality reforms
The government has been accused of using the BBC as a “punching bag” after a minister said the corporation has “on occasion” been biased – but then was unable to provide examples of this.
Labour said Lucy Frazer’s interview with Sky News showed she was the “latest in a long line of Secretaries of State for Culture Wars”, and the government is intent on “attacking and undermining” the BBC.
Ms Frazer was asked several times if she believes the BBC has shown bias, in light of government reforms aimed at boosting public confidence in the public service broadcaster.
She said that “on occasions it has been biased”, citing its reporting of a hospital attack in Gaza.
It was put to her that a mistake is not the same as bias and Ms Frazer agreed, going on to say that “there is a perception amongst the public that the BBC is biased”.
When it was put to her that perceptions are not necessarily reality, Ms Frazer said: “There are only perceptions and perceptions are important.
“What’s important about the BBC is that it’s funded by the public, so the perception of audiences, of the public, are important.”
Ms Frazer refused to say which other broadcasters she believed might be impartial, saying they were in “totally different positions” from the publicly funded corporation.
Labour’s shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire criticised her remarks, posting on X: “Just the latest in a long line of Secretaries of State for Culture Wars.
“Attacking and undermining one of our greatest institutions at every chance they get.
“Instead of using it as a punching bag the government should be supporting the BBC to create wealth, jobs and joy.”
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer says the reforms will improve accountability and public confidence
Ofcom oversight to be extended to BBC News articles
The reforms, announced as part of the BBC mid-term review, would give media regular Ofcom more powers over the BBC’s online services, including its news website and YouTube channel.
Currently, the communications watchdog regulates the BBC’s TV, radio and on-demand output, but not other elements of its online content.
The government said oversight should be extended to digital services to enable the regulator to hold the BBC to account “in a more robust way”.
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This could see Ofcom granted powers to take enforcement action over BBC News website articles it does not believe meet relevant broadcast standards.
If a broadcaster breaks the rules repeatedly, or in a way considered to be serious, Ofcom has the legal powers to impose sanctions on them, such as fines.
The watchdog has also been given a new legally binding responsibility to review more of the BBC’s complaints decisions.
Alongside this is a legal responsibility for the BBC Board to actively oversee its own complaints process.
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‘Impartiality an ongoing issue for audiences’
The mid-term review concluded the current complaint’s process, called BBC First, does allow licence fee payers to hold the corporation directly accountable, but said impartiality continues to be an ongoing issue for audiences.
The changes are designed to “enhance the independent scrutiny of its complaints handling and improve the experience of viewers who make a complaint”.
The government said its recommendations are expected to be implemented “in a timely manner”, following talks with the BBC and Ofcom.
Ms Frazer said the BBC “needs to adapt” to the reforms or risk “losing the trust of the audience it relies on”.
A spokesperson for the BBC said “no other organisation takes its commitment to impartiality more seriously”.
They added: “During discussions over the mid-term review, we proposed and implemented a number of reforms, including strengthening our complaints procedures, which now form part of the conclusions.
“We are pleased the government has fully taken our proposals onboard. We remain committed to continuous improvement to ensure we deliver for all licence fee payers.”
The impartiality of the BBC came under increased scrutiny last year following a number of high-profile incidents.
There was outrage when Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker was briefly taken off air following a tweet about the government’s asylum policy, forcing the BBC to change its social media guidelines.
It also faced an impartiality row after it emerged former chairman Richard Sharp, who has since resigned, broke the rules by failing to disclose the role he played in helping Boris Johnson secure an £800,000 loan.
US federal prosecutors and the co-founders of the crypto mixer Samourai Wallet have asked a court for more time to consider potentially dismissing the case after the Justice Department rolled back its crypto enforcement.
Lawyers for Samourai Wallet CEO Keonne Rodriguez and chief technology officer William Hill said in an April 28 letter to Manhattan federal judge Richard Berman that they jointly requested with the government “for a continuance of the pretrial motions schedule by 16 days.”
The Samourai executives’ lawyers said on April 10 that they wrote to Acting Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton to request the dismissal of the case after an April 7 memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche shuttered the Justice Department’s crypto team.
“On April 24, 2025, defense counsel met with the prosecutors and their supervisors in person at the U.S. Attorney’s Office to discuss this request,” the lawyers said.
“The Defendants believe that a continuance of the pretrial motions schedule is warranted to permit Defendants to avoid the significant expense of preparing their motions while the Government determines its position,” the letter stated.
It added that prosecutors agreed to adjourn “without expressing any views on the merits.”
Samourai Wallet’s Rodriguez and Hill were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business in April 2024, to which they both pleaded not guilty.
Blanche’s memo said, “The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator,” and it would abandon enforcement and investigations besides those which “focus on prosecuting individuals who victimize digital asset investors, or those who use digital assets in furtherance of criminal offenses.”
Currently, motions in the Samourai executives’ case are due May 13, responses are due on June 10, and replies on June 24. The letter proposes to put this back to May 29 for motions, June 26 for responses, and July 10 for replies.
The continuance would not affect the trial date, which is slated for early November.
Quashing crypto litigation list lengthens
The move is the latest in a long list of court actions to have prosecutors’ crypto cases quashed under the Trump administration’s favorable stance toward the industry.
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On April 9, SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony, who is charged with wire fraud and money laundering, cited Blanche’s directive in a bid to get his case dismissed.
Meanwhile, on April 28, the DeFi Education Fund petitioned the White House to drop charges against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm and requested immediate action to “discontinue the Biden-era Department of Justice’s lawless campaign to criminalize open-source software development.”
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The crypto lobby group, the DeFi Education Fund, has petitioned the Trump administration to end what it claimed was the “lawless prosecution” of open-source software developers, including Roman Storm, a creator of the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash.
In an April 28 letter to White House crypto czar David Sacks, the group urged President Donald Trump “to take immediate action to discontinue the Biden-era Department of Justice’s lawless campaign to criminalize open-source software development.”
The letter specifically mentioned the prosecution of Storm, who was charged in August 2023 with helping launder over $1 billion in crypto through Tornado Cash. His trial is still set for July, and his fellow charged co-founder, Roman Semenov, is at large and believed to be in Russia.
The DeFi Education Fund said that in Storm’s case, the Department of Justice is attempting to hold software developers criminally liable for how others use their code, which is “not only absurd in principle, but it sets a precedent that potentially chills all crypto development in the United States.”
The group also called for the recognition that the prosecution contradicts the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) guidance from Trump’s first term, which established that developers of self-custodial, peer-to-peer protocols are not money transmitters.
“This kind of legal environment does not just chill innovation — it freezes it,” they argued. The letter added that it also “empowers politically-motivated enforcement and puts every open-source developer at risk, regardless of industry.”
In January, a federal court in Texas ruled that the Treasury overstepped its authority by sanctioning Tornado Cash.
Stakes could not be higher
The group thanked Trump for his support of the industry and his stated goal to make America the “crypto capital of the planet.”
They added, however, that his goal can’t be realized if developers are prosecuted for building tools that enable the technology.
“We ask President Trump to protect American software developers, restore legal clarity, and end this unlawful DOJ overreach. The job’s not finished, and the stakes could not be higher.”
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Variant Fund chief legal officer Jake Chervinsky said the Justice Department’s case against Storm is “an outdated remnant of the Biden administration’s war on crypto.”
“There is no justification in law or policy for prosecuting software developers for launching non-custodial smart contract protocols,” he added.
At the time of writing, the petition had attracted 232 signatures from industry executives and developers, including Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, and Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko, among others.
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Migrants convicted of sex offences in the UK or overseas will be unable to claim asylum under government plans to change the law to improve border security.
The Home Office announcement means foreign nationals who are added to the sex offenders register will forfeit their rights to protection under the Refugee Convention.
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As part of the 1951 UN treaty, countries are allowed to refuse asylum to terrorists, war criminals and individuals convicted of a “particularly serious crime” – which is currently defined in UK law as an offence carrying a sentence of 12 months or more.
The government now plans to extend that definition to include all individuals added to the Sex Offenders’ Register, regardless of the length of sentence, in an amendment to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which is currently going through parliament. It’s understood they also hope to include those convicted of equivalent crimes overseas.
Those affected will still be able to appeal their removal from the UK in the courts under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
More than 10,000 people have now been detected crossing the Channel. Pic: PA
It is unclear how many asylum seekers will be affected, as the government has been unable to provide any projections or past data on the number of asylum seekers added to the Sex Offenders’ Register.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Sex offenders who pose a risk to the community should not be allowed to benefit from refugee protections in the UK.
“We are strengthening the law to ensure these appalling crimes are taken seriously.”
Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Minister Jess Philips said: “We are determined to achieve our mission of halving violence against women and girls in a decade.
“That’s exactly why we are taking action to ensure there are robust safeguards across the system, including by clamping down on foreign criminals who commit heinous crimes like sex offences.”
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The Home Office would like voters to see this as a substantial change. But that’s hard to demonstrate without providing any indication of the scale of the problem it seeks to solve.
Clearly, the government does not want to fan the flames of resentment towards asylum seekers by implying large numbers have been committing sex crimes.
But amid rising voter frustration about the government’s grip on the issue, and under pressure from Reform – this measure is about signalling it is prepared to take tough action.
Conservatives: ‘Too little, too late’
The Conservatives claim Labour are engaged in “pre-election posturing”.
Chris Philp MP, the shadow home secretary, said: “This is too little, too late from a Labour government that has scrapped our deterrent and overseen the worst year ever for small boat crossings – with a record 10,000 people crossing this year already.
“Foreign criminals pose a danger to British citizens and must be removed, but so often this is frustrated by spurious legal claims based on human rights claims, not asylum claims.”
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Has Labour tackled migration?
The Home Office has also announced plans to introduce a 24-week target for appeal hearings (known as “first-tier tribunals”) to be held for rejected asylum seekers living in taxpayer-supported accommodation, or for foreign national offenders.
The current average wait is 50 weeks. The idea is to cut the asylum backlog and save taxpayers money – Labour have committed to end the use of asylum hotels by the end of this parliament.
It’s unclear how exactly this will be achieved, although a number of additional court days have already been announced.
The government also plans to crack down on fake immigration lawyers who advise migrants on how to lodge fraudulent asylum claims, with the Immigration Advice Authority given new powers to issue fines of up to £15,000.
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