United Kingdom — news channels live

To understand British broadcasting you need one rule: in this country television and radio news carry a legal duty of IMPARTIALITY that does not apply to newspapers. The broadcasting code of the regulator, Ofcom, requires news programmes to observe "due impartiality"; a channel may not take sides on a political question and must reflect significant viewpoints with appropriate balance. The duty does not extend to the press — which is why Britain lives with a fiercely partisan newspaper industry alongside a television news sector bound by law to even-handedness. The measured presenter on screen and the blistering front page the next morning are two sides of the same arrangement.

The second defining element is the BBC. Founded in 1922, it is not a government department but an independent public corporation established under Royal Charter, funded largely by a licence fee paid per household. That model leaves it dependent on neither advertisers nor the Treasury; in return, because the level of the fee is settled in negotiation with government, the corporation sits permanently at the centre of arguments about political pressure.

The third is that news production can be separated from channel ownership. The independent production company ITN produces news for both ITV and Channel 4, so bulletins on two different channels may come out of the same newsroom while keeping distinct editorial identities. It is the clearest illustration of how British journalism is organised institutionally.