John Oliver’s ‘Brexit Speech’ Was Blocked From British TV Until After EU Referendum
In the wake of the UK voting to ‘Brexit’ the European Union, it’s clear that one of the referendum’s biggest fails was the lack of clear and unbiased education for everyday Brits.
Google even discovered a massive peak in searches for ‘What is the EU?’ by British folk desperately trying to understand the ramifications for their vote – after the decision was made.
"What is the EU?" is the second top UK question on the EU since the #EURefResults were officially announced pic.twitter.com/1q4VAX3qcm
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
You’d think that more people would have taken a proactive approach to inform themselves. But aint nobody got time for that, right?
It seems this isn’t so. It’s now been revealed that last weeks episode of Last Week Tonight, featuring John Oliver’s explanation of brexit, was blocked from being shown in the UK.
John Oliver's Brexit piece, aired on Rupert Murdoch's Sky Atlantic, isn't being aired until Thursday (usually on tonight). Can't think why.
— Chris Brosnahan (@ChrisBrosnahan) June 20, 2016
In the video, Oliver discredited many of the facts cited by the ‘Vote Leave’ campaign, including UKIP’s comments on migration and economic losses.
While Last Week Tonight is typically shown on Sky Atlantic one day after it appears on HBO, the program did not go ahead as scheduled and was not available on the Sky Channel’s on-demand services or on streaming services like Now TV.
Episode 16 is not pictured – NOWTV.com
Sky told BuzzFeed News:
“Sky have complied with the Ofcom broadcasting restrictions at times of elections and referendums that prohibit us showing this section of the programme at this moment in time”
“We will be able to show it once the polls have closed on Thursday.”
According to Ofcom guidelines, when airing programs like Last Week Tonight, they can’t broadcast a political opinion without providing a counter-argument.
This seems just weird – and kinda implies a required level of false-balance.
This guideline is taken especially seriously by broadcasters during the run-up to a referendum or election.
However, this does not usually apply to shows available on the internet, so it looks like a pretty insane effort to cover it up. Who knows why? It seems far-fetched that Oliver’s speech could have changed anything.
Sky Atlantic instead aired the episode of Last Week Tonight after the polls closed for the EU referendum on 23 June.