adrenochrome

Yes, indeed, your global correspondent’s Airbus has come in, and I am back in the UK and ready to blog. Throughout my Spanish experience, I made many notes and came to many conclusions that I was intending to share gradually with my reader. However, it appears that my favourite public sector broadcaster has got itself into a corner, to date over 11,000 complaints, refusing to broadcast the DEC Appeal for aid for Gaza.

The Director General who, in fairness to impartial and open reporting, visited Israel in 2005 with his Jewish wife and met with senior Israeli politicians, issued a defence today on the BBC website, and there was further exclaimation from the BBC hierarchy during the Radio4 ‘Today’ show. Following this radio discussion, Tony Benn and 50 Labour MPs have tabled a House of Commons motion to force the BBC to air the appeal. You may wish to listen to the programme on BBCs i-player, or read the Director-Generals comments on the BBC Blog ‘News Editors blogs’, but I shall precis the DGs comments and respond below.

The DG, named Mark Thompson, stated that the BBC had refused to air DEC Appeals before. This is true, though does not help his case. Whilst broadcasting DEC Appeals for the following ‘controversial’ aid scenerios;                                                                           Gulf Crisis (1990)
Former Yugoslavia (1994)
Rwanda (1994)
Sudan (1998)
Kosovo (1999)
Liberia (2003)
Sudan - Darfur (2004)
Darfur & Chad (2007),

the BBC did refuse the DEC ‘Lebanon’ Appeal after the Israeli invasion and bombing of the Lebanon. The BBC has now refused 2 DEC Appeals, both after Israeli involvement. This may not be due to any outside influence, but for a corporation which has seriously damaged its image and lost the trust of the public, this seems more than coincidental.

The DG states that a major reason for not broadcasting is that Gaza “remains a major ongoing news story, in which humanitarian issues - the suffering and distress of civilians and combatants on both sides of the conflict, the debate about who is responsible for causing it and what should be done about it - are both at the heart of the story and contentious.” The DEC appeal for Darfur was identical to the statement above.
The concerns that the aid may not be safely delivered and to the right people was even more so in Darfur, where the African Nations were arguing about a peace-keeping force, and the UN would not get involved.
In Gaza, UNWRA are already there, and other aid agencies were operating prior to the latest conflict, and shall return with their networks mostly still intact.
Whatever a person feels about Israel or Hamas, approximately 1,000 young children and thousands of adults are in need of medical care but the hospitals have not the relevant medicines and equipment. Thousands more humans are now homeless, and whilst Gaza may be meditarranean, it is still winter, and temperatures are very low at night. They need tents and blankets, shoes and clothes.
Additionally, there has been a 9 month blockade of Gaza which has let to shortages of food, fuel and other essential daily items.
This is a valid DEC Appeal, with international backing, and the BBC should support it.
If there is also any hint that broadcasting the appeal could be deemed to have breached the BBCs impartiality, perhaps Mr Thompsonwould like to consider how his phrase “a duty to ensure that nothing risks undermining our impartiality” tallies with the BBCs choice to dedicate a half hour of peak time evening viewing for a whole week to show ‘Anne Franks Diary’ DURING the conflict. In the light of Sir Gerald Kaufman’s comments in the House of Commons, the BBC seems to have taken a side in this matter already, and is not fulfilling its “duty”.