Poster from the British Distaster Emergency Coalition (DEC).
It would appear that there is a conflict brewing over Gaza, in Britain, concerning efforts to publish the most basic of humanitarian calls for help: charity appeals for the Palestinians just decimated by Israel’s duck shoot in Gaza. There is no need to speak about the already dead. It is the living Gazans who survived the onslaught whose lives are in question, and many British charities such as the Red Cross and Oxfam are in need of immediate support and funding.
The BBC, however, refused to publish these charity appeals because, as the BBC contends, its impartiality would be jeopardized. Unless most of us are in a state of ignorance about what just happened in Gaza, 1300 dead including nearly 400 children, the 4,500 wounded and maimed, some of whom will still die, and the vast destruction, this charity appeal is apparently viewed by the BBC as one-sided or perhaps a prejudiced venture.
The two thousand protesters in London who marched to the BBC headquarters didn’t think so.
MediaLens filed this report:
The BBC – Impartial or Immoral?
Despite (the) carnage, despite the fact that 89% of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents have received no humanitarian aid since Israel began its assault, the Guardian notes that the BBC has refused to broadcast a national humanitarian appeal for Gaza, “leaving aid agencies with a potential shortfall of millions of pounds in donations.” (Jenny Percival, ‘Broadcasters refuse to air Gaza charity appeal,’ The Guardian, January 23, 2008;
The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an umbrella organisation for 13 aid charities, launched its Gaza appeal yesterday saying the devastation was “so huge that British aid agencies were compelled to act”.By refusing to give free airtime to the appeal, the BBC made a rare decision to breach an agreement dating back to 1963. Other broadcasters then also rejected it. The DEC’s chief executive, Brendan Gormley, said:
“We are used to our appeal getting into every household and offering a safe and necessary way for people to respond. This time we will have to work a lot harder because we won’t have the free airtime or the powerful impact of appearing on every TV and radio station.”
A BBC website article defending the BBC’s refusal to broadcast the Gaza appeal, asserted:
“The BBC decision was made because of question marks about the delivery of aid in a volatile situation and also to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC’s impartiality in the context of an ongoing news story.”
Gormley rejected the BBC’s claim that there were question marks about the delivery of aid, saying 100 lorries a day were entering Gaza. He also challenged the alleged problem with “impartiality”:
“We are totally apolitical and are driven by the principles of the Geneva conventions in terms of impartiality and neutrality. This appeal is a response to those humanitarian principles. The BBC seems to be confusing impartiality with equal airtime.”
ITV said: “The DEC asked all broadcasters if they could support the appeal. We (the broadcasters) assessed the DEC’s requirements carefully against the agreed criteria and we were unable to reach the consensus necessary for an appeal.”
Sky said: “We were considering this request internally when the DEC contacted us to let us know that the BBC had decided not to broadcast the appeal at this time. As, by convention, if all broadcasters do not carry the appeal then none do, the decision was effectively made for us.” (Ibid.)
This immoral and callous decision by the BBC in response to the suffering of the people of Gaza should not go unchallenged.
ABC posted this story on Sun Jan 25, 2009 with this headline:
BBC under fire over refusal to show Gaza charity appeal.
….Its decision has provoked fierce criticism from Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Government and Muslim groups, while thousands of demonstrators gathered Saturday to protest against the move.
“I think the British public can distinguish between support for humanitarian aid and perceived partiality in a conflict,” he told BBC radio Saturday. “I really struggle to see, in the face of the immense human suffering in Gaza at the moment, that this is in any way a credible argument.”
Then this report today,
MPs Back Motion For Gaza Appeal
More than 50 MPs are backing a parliamentary motion urging the BBC to air an aid appeal for thousands of people without food and medicine in Gaza.
(snip)
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is the latest figure to add his voice to the string of politicians, including senior government ministers, urging the corporation to change its mind.
He said he fully backed the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu – who said: “This is not a row about impartiality but rather about humanity.
The people responded,
Protests at BBC’s Gaza charity appeal snub mounting
In London yesterday, hundreds of people gathered for a rally outside British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) offices, later swelling to thousands in a march through central London to protest the BBC’s wrong-headed refusal to broadcast a charity appeal to raise emergency funds for people in Gaza.
The crowd was addressed by speakers including Tony Benn, a former Labour cabinet minister, MP George Galloway, Salma Yaqoob, Jeremy Corbyn and Dave Crouch (Media Workers against War).
The Stop The War Coalition, which organised the march, estimates that the ban on broadcasting the appeal could cost up to $14 million in donations.
The BBC, like the US Public Broadcasting System (PBS), is a publicly owned network. So where is PBS in this appeal. Don’t ask. The British appear to have taken the lead in human rights activism from us.
Updates may follow.
UPDATE:
Gaza protestors invade BBC Scotland offices over refusal to broadcast aid appeal
Jan 26 2009
PROTESTERS invaded BBC Scotland’s HQ last night to condemn bosses for refusing to show an emergency appeal for Gaza.About 25 Stop the War Coalition campaigners marched into the lobby at Pacific Quay in Glasgow and refused to leave.The crowd swelled to about 60 within a couple of hours. About 15 police arrived to keep order but there were no arrests.
The BBC claim airing the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for Gaza would threaten their impartiality. ITV, Channel 4 and Five have all agreed to screen it.The protesters demanded that the BBC executive responsible for the decision be sacked.
