In a move that BBC Radio Scotland described as ‘unprecedented’, on Wednesday 28 January 2009 representatives of Stop the War, the Glasgow Palestine Human Rights Campaign, and Spinwatch.org met with BBC Scotland Controller Ken McQuarrie, the BBC Scotland Executive Editor of News Programmes Alasdair MacLeod, and BBC Scotland Head of Public Policy and Corporate Affairs Ian Small.   The meeting was a direct result of the occupation of the BBC Scotland headquarters on Sunday by 100 members of the public.  The principal subject of the meeting was the BBC’s decision not to air the DEC Gaza Appeal. 

The BBC representatives were given a letter which outlined in detail the arguments for showing the appeal (a copy is attached).  Mr. McQuarrie said that ‘I absolutely support the position the BBC has taken,’ but unfortunately the BBC Scotland executives were not able to provide any clear justifications for that decision.  They could only say that it was a 'complex' argument.

First, the BBC executives were not aware of the level of public concern about the refusal to air the appeal.  Mr. McQuarrie acknowledged that: ‘the bulk, the majority of complaints we have are in support of showing the appeal’, but had no idea what the actual figures were. The Guardian reported on Tuesday that 21,000 complaints had been received compared to 380 messages of support for the BBC’s position, a ‘majority’ of over 98%.  Mr. McQuarrie said he sees the complaints on a daily basis but is not privy to the aggregate figures which are collected by Capita, the private company which operates the BBC’s ‘customer services’.

Second, when asked what makes the people of Gaza different from those the BBC has broadcast appeals for in past ‘conflict’ situations where the BBC has broadcast DEC appeals (including Darfur, Rwanda and Kosovo) Mr. McQuarrie and the others were left struggling to pull together any explanation.  They could say only that the ‘scale of the story’ was different.

Third, they were unable to answer coherently our point that the decision was not defending impartiality but undermining it, and that the BBC had permanently damaged its credibility. It was made clear to the BBC representatives present in the meeting that by not showing the appeal and by arguing that responsibility for civilian casualties was ‘contentious,’ the leadership of the BBC had taken up the narrative of the Israeli government.

Fourth, they were unable to answer our point that in effect the BBC is implying that aid agencies are partial - very dangerous for the agencies in particular as in the past the Israelis have looked for any excuse to attack civilian infrastructure and civilians including aid agencies.

Fifth, the BBC continued to argue that the viewing public might not be able to tell the difference between the aid appeal and a news broadcast. We assured them that their viewers are more intelligent than they seem to think, and that the Appeal broadcast was significantly different in style from BBC news broadcasts.

Sixth, although responses to complaints and the BBC The Editors blog continue to claim that part of the BBC’s reasoning is that it is doubtful that aid ‘could actually be delivered on the ground’, these executives said that the BBC has now abandoned that position.

Mr. McQuarrie admitted that there are BBC staff in favour of showing the DEC appeal, but said ‘we have not taken a poll.’

Mr.  McQuarrie stated that although BBC Scotland has the technical capability to broadcast the DEC appeal for Gaza independent of the BBC in London, BBC Scotland would not go against the BBC’s position of refusing to show the appeal.

The BBC clearly does not have a leg to stand on when it comes to their decision to not show the DEC appeal.

Congratulations and keep up the great work to all the NUJ and BECTU trade unionist, actors, directors, politicians, license fee payers and political figures such as Mohamed ElBaradei.

We need to keep up the pressure on the BBC across the UK and internationally until we hold them accountable to the overwhelming position of public opinion and force them to show the DEC appeal for Gaza. Keep sending in complaints, keep speaking out in the media and keep demonstrating. We can win this.

DEC Appeal for Gaza: 0370 60 60 900

BBC complaints line: 0370 01 00 222