Should journalists be banned from posing as activists to secretly film politicians?
Journalists in the UK are not banned from going undercover: Ofcom's Broadcasting Code allows secret filming and deception where it is warranted in the public interest and the material cannot reasonably be obtained by other means. ITV's documentary 'Undercover: A Year in Reform' aired on 18 October 2026, after reporters posed as staff and campaign volunteers for a year across 2025 and 2026. Reform UK has reported ITV and its journalists to the police, alleging passport fraud and election interference. ITV says its journalism complied with the law and Ofcom rules, and no wrongdoing has been established.
10 Opinions
There's a risk to going undercover. Instead of unbiased information being reported, we'll get biased information.
Journalistic freedom to investigate and uncover corruption should never be taken away. We need to strongly encourage them to do even more of it so that we can hold people accountable for harm. If the right-wingers don't like it, they can either stop doing the nasty things that they're doing that's getting them investigated so much, or they can start funding investigations into other parties instead of crying about it and playing the victim card. Preferably, they'd do both.
In an ideal world, no, but since it always affects right wing parties, it's a yes. It needs to be across the board. It's easy for a lefty to infiltrate the right - just need to remove the septum piercings, hair dye & pride/palestine gear & act normal: imagine a right-leaning journo having to do all of the above and act lefty - they would need to put in an Oscar winning performance & their sanity would be at risk! Anyone want to infiltrate the greens for a year???
Literally. Do more of this. Everybody is fair game. 🤓 Even if you find nothing sensational. Show us. I actually want our leaders to be boring again. 💫 Edited
Yes,, buy only where there is a potential risk of conflict or where there is political bias, which could be seen as election interference. We do need to expose wrongdoing, but if they are doing this to one party, they should be doing it to all. There are bad apples in every party, and in many organisations heavily linked to UK politics. Labour is far from squeaky clean.
No, undercover investigation and provocation are very good tools. I only would like to use them equally against all political parties.
Going undercover is part of journalism and politicians are, in particular, fair game.
Absolutely not, undercover work is extremely valuable. So many important have been exposed that way.