BBC Gaza Appeal: Joke Of The Day

IS it too soon to amkie jokes about the altest Arab-Israeli war? The BBC has delicned the offer to charity appeal for victims of the Gaza crisis.

ITV, Channel 4 and Five have all agreed to broadcast a two-minute appeal from 13 leading British charities.

So why hasn’t the BBC? Get this:

Speaking on Radio 4, the BBC’s chief operating officer, Caroline Thomson, said:

“The most important thing the BBC can do for the people of Gaza is carry on reporting impartially and fearlessly.

“If we lose the trust of the audience, by appearing…to support one side rather than another, we will have lost it for the charities themselves, as well as everyone else.”

BBC director-general Mark Thompson writes:

“Inevitably an appeal would use pictures that are the same or similar to those we would be using in our news programmes, but would do so with the objective of encouraging public donations. The danger for the BBC is that this could be interpreted as taking a political stance. When we have turned down DEC appeals in the past it has been because of this risk of giving the public the impression that the BBC was taking sides in an ongoing conflict.

“This is an important part of what it is to be a public-service broadcaster. It is sometimes not a comfortable place to be, but we have a duty to ensure that nothing risks undermining our impartiality.”

With satire that that, who need Rossy?

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Anorak

Posted: 25th, January 2009 | In: Media Comments (8) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink