Fox News coverage of Brexit broke UK broadcasting rules

Fox News flouted broadcasting rules in UK by airing a discussion on the EU referendum during the hours that Brits were casting their votes.

"Your World with Neil Cavuto" featured two separate items on the referendum when it was broadcast simultaneously in the UK and US on 23 June, the day of the historic Brexit vote.

The rhetoric was heavily in favour of leaving the EU, with one contributor arguing: "We are governed by a bunch of bureaucrats that don't speak English in a funny place called The Hague, which makes no sense at all, and it tells Britain what to do, it takes British money, it doesn't send much of if it back. It's a very unfair one-way street."

Broadcasters in Britain must halt their coverage of elections and referendums when the nation heads to the polls under media regulator Ofcom's rules.

Fox protested that "Your World with Neil Cavuto's" business focus, and the fact that it was broadcast at 9pm UK time, is unlikely to have materially impacted voting behaviour.

But Ofcom took a dim view of the Fox News broadcast and found it in breach of rule 6.4 in the Broadcasting Code, which states: "Discussion and analysis of election and referendum issues must finish when the poll opens."

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