The impartiality rules about balancing party political perspectives in the run up to the recent elections limited how far broadcasters could robustly scrutinise their claims, analysis from Cardiff University suggests.
Academics from the School of Journalism, Media and Culture spent 10 weeks analysing coverage in the run up to the Welsh, Scottish and English elections.
Focusing on the Senedd election, the team found scrutiny of policy and campaigning was limited in day-to-day coverage of the Welsh elections. Analysis of relevant TV news items showed 49% featured no scrutiny 29% featured substantial scrutiny, and 22% featured brief scrutiny. This means more than 70% of claims by politicians on TV news received no or limited scrutiny.
Scrutiny was much higher when coverage focussed on one party or in one-on-one interviews, as opposed to coverage that tried to cover all six major parties in a single report.
Professor Stephen Cushion, who leads the project, said: "Our new study suggests the UK's current rules on broadcast impartiality limited the scrutiny of political parties across the English, Scottish and Welsh elections. In day-to-day reporting, the major broadcasters had to reflect a wide range of parties across three different contests – but the breadth of perspectives limited the depth of analysis, including the interrogation of specific policies and party political claims.
"In coverage of the Senedd election, for example, over seven in 10 policy claims by politicians on TV news received no scrutiny or just some brief questioning. On UK-wide news, TV news bulletins had to balance a wide range of parties across three contests in England, Scotland and Wales making it difficult to analyse competing policies in detail.
"In an age of multi-party politics, these findings raise serious questions about how the UK's current due impartiality rules are currently being applied by broadcasters during an election campaign period. This does not mean impartiality should be abandoned in a Fox News style way, but the rules need to be rethought to give broadcasters the flexibility to provide greater scrutiny in day-to-day news reporting."
The public expect broadcasters not only to cover all political parties during a campaign, but to scrutinise their promises and challenge false or misleading claims.
On Thursday 7 May, voters in Wales went to the polls to elect members of a newly expanded Senedd. The election was the first to take place following the expansion of the Senedd from 60 to 96 members and the introduction of a new closed-list proportional voting system.
These changes meant that broadcasters faced a significant challenge: not only reporting the campaign but also explaining how the election worked, what powers were at stake and how voters' choices would translate into representation.
On a UK level, the Senedd elections took place at the same time as the Scottish and English local elections. This meant they were competing for attention in UK-wide media coverage. Previous research has shown many people in Wales still rely on UK media, especially the BBC and ITV, to understand politics and public affairs.
Professor Cushion added: "Overall, the findings show that broadcasters played an important role in making the Senedd election visible and accessible to audiences. They used a range of formats, including explainers, interviews, polling coverage and vox pops, to report the campaign and engage voters."
However, the analysis also identifies clear challenges. Future coverage needs to ensure that efforts to represent a broad range of parties, report public opinion and adapt election coverage for digital audiences are matched by clear explanation, consistent scrutiny and substantive engagement with policy debates in day-to-day reporting.
The latest report, Reporting the 2026 UK Elections, with Wales in Focus: TV, Online and Social Media Coverage of the Senedd is available to view here .
