Trust in BBC News has plummeted amongst the politically aware, according to a report by a well respected journalism think tank.
The Digital News Report 2020, published by the University of Oxford based Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, highlighted public concerns about the accuracy and impartiality of the BBC's news coverage of the Brexit process.
People across the political divide were united in their growing distrust of BBC News.
The report said: "Although the left has long had a problem with right-wing bias in the UK press, the Brexit crisis saw the public service BBC increasingly in the firing line.
"The BBC has a duty to be duly impartial in its news coverage but our data show that, although overall trust in its news remains high, criticism from those who are politically committed (on the left and the right) has grown over the last few years.
"Trust in the BBC with the most partisan groups has fallen by 20 percentage points since 2018."
The report findings are based on a YouGov survey of over 80,000 online news consumers in 40 different countries.
UK respondents were asked to rate the trustworthiness of BBC News.
Not surprisingly the report also confirmed that a far greater proportion of people had turned to television for their news during the coronavirus lockdown period.
At the start of the year 55% of the UK population had used the television as a source of news within the past week, but this had jumped to 71% by the height of lockdown in April.
Nic Newman, of the Institute, said: "The coronavirus crisis has substantially increased news consumption for mainstream media in all six countries where we conducted surveys before and after the pandemic had taken effect.
"Television news and online sources have seen significant upticks, and more people identify television as their main source of news."
You can download and view the full Digital News Report 2020 here.
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