Further to my last update it is disappointing to report that Lord Justice Singh in the Court of Appeal has now refused to grant leave to appeal against the decision of Mr Justice Supperstone who at a hearing on 14th November 2019 rejected my application for judicial review to challenge the impartiality and performance measures of the BBC. (See links to both Judgments –Judgement 1 & Judgement 2 - and our Grounds of Appeal)

Having spent the Crowd funding money raised on my legal costs for the application to the High Court this leaves me privately to meet the costs of the BBC totalling approximately £18,000-00.

Mr Justice Supperstone was in part swayed by OFCOM as the regulatory body charged with regulating the BBC rather than by way of judicial review in the courts.

I regret that the judgments of the High Court and the Court of Appeal fail to take into account the inability of the BBC to exercise its judgment, analyze its performance and properly measure it. The lack of impartiality of the BBC continues to be a matter of grave public concern as can be seen from current press comment which is reported on a daily basis.

OFCOM in its October 2019 review and elsewhere demonstrated that it is not prepared to tackle this issue. I intend to continue with the support of other like-minded individuals to attempt to make the BBC accountable for its content and implement an acceptable and functioning system to measure the impartiality of its output and ensure compliance with its Charter obligations.

There is a lot more to do. Thank you for playing your part.

David Keighley

24th February 2020

At an oral hearing of my claim for judicial review against the BBC on 14th November Mr Justice Supperstone rejected my application on the basis that he considered there was nothing in the BBC Charter which prescribed any particular form of framework or performance metric to assess its performance . It was a matter in which the BBC had a wide discretion.

The judge also took the view that the BBC was regulated by OFCOM which in its report had not found the BBC to be in breach of its due impartiality requirements.

This is very disappointing, but it does not mean we have reached the end of the road. I am currently considering with my legal team future action, including the merits of an application for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal and a formal regulatory complaint to OFCOM.

We will provide further comment and explanation when the full transcript of the hearing has been made available by the High Court, hopefully very soon.

Meanwhile, I would like to thank again all the donors who have provided such vital support. There remains a strong need to hold the BBC properly to account.

Best Regards, 

David

We are pausing our fundraising until the hearing in the autumn.

I cannot thank you all enough for the amazing support – both financially and personally – you have given me in my CrowdJustice campaign.  I am truly surprised by the speed at which we have raised so much money together.

The campaign’s initial target of £25,000 was hit within five days of its launch and in the end we have raised a staggering figure of over £57,000. This money is essential for me to fight for us all as we campaign for a fair and impartial BBC.

I always knew deep down that I was not the only person who felt the way I do about the BBC. Hundreds of us are feeling the same and that heartens me.

We have now submitted our case to the High Court and we are anticipating that a hearing will be held in the autumn. At that stage I will assess what our campaign needs in terms of additional fundraising, but for now let me say once again a huge ‘thank you’ - your generosity has enabled this very important challenge to go ahead. 

Thank you to everybody for your support. 

Best Regards,

David. 

We are 80% of the way to our stretch target! Preparation for the case is going well. But we need all the help we can muster to take on the might of the BBC so any further support towards our target will be very gratefully received. 

Regards,

David. 

We reached £50,000 in donations. Thank you so much for your support. I am told preparation for the case is going well. But we need all the help we can muster to take on the might of the BBC so any further support towards our target will be very gratefully received. 

Best Regards,

David.

We reached £50,000. Thank you so much for your support. I am told preparation for the case is going well ... but we expect many legal bumps along the way. 

Thank you again.

David.

We are 65% of the way to our stretch target. Please share the campaign with your friends to get us that bit closer:

Sample FB post

Support the campaign to Stop Bias at the BBC! https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stopbbcbias/

Sample Tweet

Support the campaign to Stop Bias at the BBC! https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stopbbcbias/ #BBCbias #stopbbcbias

Sample email

Dear NAME, 

Stop BBC Bias's crowdfunding page on CrowdJustice is now live here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stopbbcbias/

Will you help? - Pledge £15, or any amount you can, on: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stopbbcbias/ and help stop BBC Bias. 

Thanks so much!

We are at over £40,000 with more than one thousand donors! We appreciate every penny. Please continue to share the campaign, and spread the word. 

Thanks so much!!

David. 

Our initial £30,000 target to meet minimum costs has been met. We are hugely grateful for this support.  The war chest remains open so that we can fight anything that the BBC throws at us! They have deep pockets but we do not. 

The campaign has been covered in the Express here.

Thanks again for all your support. 

Best Regards,

David.

We met our goal target of £30,000!! This means our request for a Judicial Review will go ahead. 

However, we are keeping the war chest open for donations to our stretch target as the BBC have deep pockets and we expect to incur more costs. 

Thank you so very much for your support.

Sincerely,

David.

Almost there!!

Final shares on Facebook and Twitter, if you can, would be marvellous. 

Best,

David.

We really, really appreciate your support. Please share the page on Twitter and Facebook, if you can, to help us reach our goal target. 

Thank you!

David. 

Nearly there, thank you so much for your support!

We are on target to raise the funds - but we still need your support. Thanks so much!

Thank you so much for your support!

This is outstanding on our first day. Thanks so much to all our backers. 

You can help us further by emailing your contacts and encouraging them to support us, or posting our link to Facebook, or Tweeting our link.

Thank you so much!

David.

Sample FB post

Support the campaign to Stop Bias at the BBC! https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stopbbcbias/

Sample Tweet

Support the campaign to Stop Bias at the BBC! https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stopbbcbias/ #BBCbias #stopbbcbias

Sample email

Dear NAME, 

Stop BBC Bias's crowdfunding page on CrowdJustice is now live here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stopbbcbias/

Will you help? - Pledge £15, or any amount you can, on: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stopbbcbias/

This is a concrete way to make a difference and hold the BBC to account with a Judicial Review. 

Thanks so much for your support!