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“Impartiality before human lives?”

(A reminder – should it be required – that these are, as always, my personal views, and not necessarily those of the BBC, BBC World Service, BBC News or anyone else I work for.)

I haven’t yet blogged about the ongoing row over the BBC’s and Sky’s refusal to show the DEC‘s , mainly because other people have been covering it so well from different angles, but also because I really don’t know where I stand myself.

I’ve always felt very uncomfortable watching appeals on television – nothing to do with the content of the images or the actual situation, sad though they always are. I feel uncomfortable because I think impartiality – supposedly the cornerstone of public-service journalism – is suffering.

Natural disasters are one thing: donations to the DEC following appeals after the Burmese cyclone and the 2004 Asian tsunami raised a combined £409m, both of which were shown on terrestrial TV, including the BBC.

But, when it comes to man-made disasters – wars and conflicts – the situation is very different. In Gaza, people have been killed and lives ruined by the conflict which started after Christmas. Gazans need money and support to re-build and get on with life, however hard that life might be. But is the BBC, by broadcasting the appeal, automatically implying that the war was wrong – that the Israeli army shouldn’t have caused so much, or indeed any, damage? And, if the answer to that is yes, then surely impartiality is compromised.

Yesterday, BBC director-general Mark Thompson visited the Arabic Services for an hour-long Q&A session on this issue. As I happened to be working at Egton House that day, I went along to see what he had to say. Feelings are running very high across the Arabic Service. Staff working there – in both TV and Radio, from senior producers to broadcast assistants, presenters to researchers, consist of a mix of Palestinians, Gazans, Egyptians and Lebanese. Everyone I have spoken to there says they just want peace in the Middle-East and – despite the apparent or supposed stance of their respective country’s governments – do not hate, or want to wage war with, their world neighbours.

The packed-out debate outside the Arabic TV studio was very heated, with questions about Thompson’s personal stance (his wife is Jewish), how his decision has made their Arabic audience question the reliability of the BBC’s output to and about the region, and about their own and colleagues’ personal safety in London and the Middle-East following various demonstrations and in BBC buildings in both the UK and Gaza. He was also questioned over his various visits to the region and meetings with Middle-East leaders over the last few years, where he claimed that he and the BBC were so worried about being labelled as biased, that they timed – with a stop-watch – their visits and meetings to make sure that each country, and each leader, had their presence for exactly the same amount of time.

One comment that particularly stood out for me came near the end of the session from a radio producer – “Haven’t you put impartiality before human lives?”

This made me consider my own stance on this issue: Will not showing the appeal affect the money raised by the charity, and cause the people in Gaza – who have already lost family, friends, homes and jobs – to lose out even more?

In this case at least, the furore caused by Mark Thompson’s decision – right or wrong – seems to have heightened general knowledge of the appeal – and donations to it – even more than if the BBC had just broadcast it after an evening news bulletin. Thompson also seems to think that the fuss will die down very quickly, Arabic audiences will once again return to the BBC’s services, and domestic UK audiences upset by the non-broadcast (presumably most of whom wouldn’t even donate) will quickly forget the whole episode – how much does anyone remember about BluePeterCatGate, just a year ago?

I suppose, on all counts, only time will tell whether the money will actually reach Gaza (another of Mark Thompson’s concerns), whether the charity will raise more money than for previous appeals following the refusal, whether impartiality would have suffered, and whether – ultimately – this was the correct decision or not.

Photos:

Mark Thompson, BBC Director-General, holding a Q&A session with the BBC World Service Arabic section staff in the Arabic Newsroom at London’s Egton House, all taken by myself (apologies for the quality, taken on a phone camera)

Leave a reply - Posted: 29th January 2009, 4:29pm - Category: Old Blog Posts

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