Freedom from bias

I, too, worry that such statements might constrain, or seem to constrain, impartiality of the news coverage [Thomson Reuters comes out for UK same sex marriage bill]. What the company said, however, is this: “… we continue to demonstrate our active support for equal opportunities for all our staff and all government legislation that promotes equality.” This can be read, therefore, as a corporate statement concerning an issue of HR policy, rather than an editor’s statement of news reporting policy. The corporation might well, does and did, advocate legislation and regulation that helps the business, whether it was keeping open foreign exchange trading or restricting the use of RICs by third parties. It has even taken stances on other issues it considered business imperatives even if they had less obvious links to the business: Advocating press freedom, for example, involves not being impartial. What is important is that the debate on this page is paralleled by a debate within the company and editorial over how to avoid whatever partiality the company and the editorial staff have from unconsciously colouring news judgement. ■