The BBC has defended a decision not to air a TV fund-raising appeal for Gaza, saying it wanted to avoid compromising public confidence in its impartiality.
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Where are all the proponents of humanitarian interventions when you need them?
it wanted to avoid compromising public confidence in its impartiality.
That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all week! I suppose Israel wants to avoid compromising public confidence in its altruistic goodwill towards arabs?
I call bullshit and political interference.
Their coverage of Gaza has been woeful and biased in favour of the US/Israeli coalition. Their “inability” to get people into Gaza during the massacre was a blatant lie. They’ve been able to get people into Zimbabwe, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan but not Gaza. I wonder why?
I’ll tell you. The Beeb has been leant on by Gordon Clown and the rest of the Bush Babies…
Gutless and spineless. The BBC is nothing more than a slug now and Gorgon the Clown will soon pour salt on them, dissolving the BBC into nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Labour Party.
Parky
From the Guardian:
The BBC [forcing Sky and ITV to follow suit] has refused to broadcast a national humanitarian appeal for Gaza, leaving aid agencies with a potential shortfall of millions of pounds in donations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/22/gaza-charity-appeal
If you feel this is wrong, please complain:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complaints_stage1.shtml
A suggested text follows:
I want to complain that the BBC has refused to support the DEC appeal for the survivors of the recent conflict in Gaza. I read about this story on the Guardian website ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/22/gaza-charity-appeal), and I think the reasons given by the BBC are incredible to say the least. There are two reasons given.
Firstly that the BBC is “concerned about the difficulties of getting aid through to victims in a volatile situation,” and secondly that the BBC “did not want to risk public confidence in its impartiality.”
DEC appeals are almost always in volatile situations (that is what most emergencies are). In Burma (the subject of a recent DEC appeal), the BBC was satisfied that, even when the military junta was dening access to the affected region, an appeal was worthwhile. The BBC has supported DEC appeals in Sudan and DRC. Are these not volatile? Perhaps aid agencies are better judges of where aid can be effectively delivered?
In terms of impartially, I understand the BBC’s concerns. But the DEC appeal is not based on the rights and wrongs of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is based purely on the humanitarian principles that a group of people, their communities and their infrastructure have been virtually (and often literally) raised to the ground. I cannot see why the BBC, with its motto “let nation speak peace unto nation,” sees any problems with impartially in helping civilians who are currently survivors of conflict, and will become victims unless they receive vast amounts of aid very quickly. To not support civilians who face this fate strikes me as less impartial than supporting them. The DEC has impartially written into its constitution, and this is enforced by UK charity law. Why can you not support them?
Please reverse your decision and support the DEC appeal as soon as possible.
———-
http://www.dec.org.uk/item/200
This a clear evidence of Western Governments support to Israel and it’s crimes against innocent people of Gaza. I fail to understand BBC’s decision of being ‘impartial’ in this case. The appeal was intended to collect money for innocent sufferers of Gaza. The charities responsible are well known independent charities with no record of corruption and miss-handling of funds. The only reason why BBC’s denial is the fact that public will become aware of the sufferings caused to Gaza by Israel and so they will turn against Israel. Obviously they do not want Israel to stop. It’s not only the BBC, It’s the government and all the parties in it. Only 60 MPs have come forward who have asked the BBC to take it’s decision back what about the rest? (hundreds of them). Being a Muslim, this is the first time, I have felt hate towards BBC and UK government. Shiraz