Sky pulls out of showing DEC appeal
By politics.co.uk staff
The Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for humanitarian assistance to cope with the fallout from the Gaza conflict has been rejected by Sky News.
John Ryley, the head of Sky News, said: “Our commitment as journalists is to cover all sides of [the] story with uncompromising objectivity.”
The BBC has been facing a wall of criticism over the weekend for refusing to show the appeal, including a parliamentary motion by 50 MPs.
This morning, North Thanet’s Conservative MP Roger Gale claimed the Today programme on Radio 4 had banned calls to the programme.
The MP, himself a former BBC Today editor and producer, said: “Following John Humphreys’ interview with the director general Mark Thompson I tried to get through to the production office (not to be confused with the studio gallery which is, of course, frantic while to programme is on air).
“I was first told that there was nobody in the office and when I challenged this – it is always manned during transmission – I was then told that ‘we have been instructed not to put any calls through until after 9 o’clock’ by which time, of course, the programme is off air.”
During the programme, Mr Thompson said: “We worry that if someone’s seen such a programme, a TV news programme, with these very emotive images, and then saw the same or similar pictures in an appeal asking for money, there is a danger that people might think we were endorsing one or other perspective on the conflict.”
This morning the prime minister’s spokesman refused to get dragged into the controversy.
“We support the appeal,” he said. “But equally we are not going to second guess the editorial decisions of independent broadcasters.”
The comments contrast with those of Douglas Aelxander, development secretary, who appeared to criticise the decision over the weekend.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, also spoke out against the BBC’s refusal to creen the appeal.
“My feeling is that the BBC should broadcast an appeal,” he said.
The DEC includes a wealth of well-respected charities, such as the British Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children.
ITV, Channel 4 and Five, have agreed to air the two-minute clip.
SNP Westminster leader, and former BBC international affairs reporter, Angus Robertson MP, said:
“With every day that passes the BBC’s defiance becomes more and more ridiculous.
“Whatever people’s views on the conflict there is no doubt that international aid is of vital importance in Gaza at this time – and for the BBC to hinder that effort is totally unacceptable by a public service broadcaster.”
Richard Burden, a Labour MP and a member of the international development committee, has written to Mr Thompson to ask for an explanation.
“I am astonished by the refusal of the BBC to broadcast the DEC Gaza appeal. The explanations given for this so far have been both unconvincing and incoherent,” he said.
“This is not about taking sides in the conflict. It is about providing urgent help to people in desperate need. More than 400 children have died, thousands are homeless and nothing short of a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Gaza.”
Over the weekend, the BBC faced protests in London by pro-Palestinian activists for what they claimed was a pro-Israeli bias in the BBC’s coverage of the conflict in the Middle East.
