Saturday, January 24, 2009

BBC Gaza DEC appeal scandal

Protest over BBC Gaza appeal veto:
"The BBC says it cannot show the appeal [for the Palestinians] by the Disasters Emergency Committee because it does not want to compromise its commitment to impartiality" intones a BBC spin-droid.

But health minister Ben Bradshaw, a former BBC journalist, said it was 'an inexplicable decision' and that the reasons given were 'completely feeble'."
So even NuLabour can see that this decision was not good. Damn right. The reason given for exclusion was that it might show bias; but the exclusion itself is evidence of totally unacceptable bias.


There is going to be a demonstration outside the BBC, broadcasting House, Portland Place at 1.30 pm today, and the BBC itself is advertising the demo. (Bring dolls, wrapped in white shrouds). This, and the fact that the Today Programme broadcast an interview with Tony Benn, suggests that a civil war over this decision is being waged within the BBC.

If you canot get to the protest, then you can act by making a complaint to the BBC,
phone: 03700 100 222 (I couldn't get through earlier, hopefully due to a mass of calls)
text: 03700 100 212
online http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complaints_stage1.shtml

In my complaint, I asked exactly who was responsible for the decision. They should be disciplined, preferably sacked.

If the great British public can swamp the BBC with complaints about the Woss-Brand SachsGate affair, which caused stress to one gentleman, then surely we can send them a signal that we will not tolerate their decision to deprive thousands of highly stressed Palestinians of desperately needed aid.

PS do not forget to donate to the DEC.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thankyou for the link I have now been able to complain to the BBC re Gaza decision. Tis amazing that Caroline Thomson and the Executive board feel this is a responsible decision. Or that license payers
need to have our thinking done for us. I was appalled that any management team on our behalf think
they should not review or rethink their decisions. Closed minds and intolerable arrogance by the board.

Anonymous said...

I would like the insult to the DEC
to be addressed. The implications that the charities after decades of operating in war zones, are unable to be impartial, shows the bias by the BBC Chief Executive
Board. This is indeed a scandal.

DocRichard said...

Hi Anonymi
Absolutely. And I do not use the word lightly. I hope to see heads roll. If they thought they were going to avoid controversy by banning the DEC, they have got exactly the opposite f what they wanted, in spades.

Anonymous said...

Call me cynical but:
The bbc is postering as it has been under repeated attack in its support of our incompetent government, and especially on supporting Israel over Gaza this year.
Which is also why NuLabor is now making this a grandstand issue in this to support aid to Gaza to show it is not controlling the bbc behind the scenes.
Also compare £25 million of our money to Gaza while it sells over £18 million of military hardware to Israel.

DocRichard said...

We sell the arms to Israel then give gracious donations to Gaza to (pretend to) mend the damage our arms have caused.

The Polluter Pays Principle means that the arms companies should have to clear up the mess. Out of their profits.

PM programme dug the hole deeper in their piece today. They read out one sensible email, then one defending the Israeli action. I bet that did not represent the ratio of pro and anti emails. I'm gonna make another complaint to the BBC.

Anonymous said...

Hello Doc

Good to see Dimbleby giving the idiotic woman complaining about a Zionist conspiracy at the BBC short shrift though. It's amazing how many people come out of the woodwork at times like this.

The aid making it to Gaza should totally bypass those odious jew-hating Hamas people as much as is at all possible.

Stela Yordanova said...

Andy Brimelow, head of international finance at the British Red Cross, is visiting the Palestine Red Crescent from 29 March - 3 April.
You can follow his updates on Twitter.
www.redcross.org.uk/twitter
www.twitter.com.britishredcross

DocRichard said...

Thanks Stela, that's very useful, I will follow his tweetings
Richard