As the Gaza appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee was broadcast on ITV and Channel 4 yesterday, the refusal of the BBC and Sky to do so remained puzzling, writes The Guardian in its editorial. Excerpts: If Mark Thompson’s core objection was that it would have compromised the impartiality of the organization’s reporting of the conflict, then what of the other appeals DEC has mounted and the BBC has screened with no qualms? Congo, Darfur and Chad, Liberia, Kosovo, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia were all man-made disasters for which DEC launched major appeals. Even the cyclone appeal for Burma had profoundly political implications, as the military junta blocked access of aid agencies to the Irrawaddy Delta. DEC’s campaign formed an open and unashamed part of a wider international effort to get the junta to open up an area of the country that it was initially determined to keep closed. And yet the BBC had no qualms about its editorial stance then. Thompson claimed yesterday that his decision on Gaza was not a first and was in line with previous decisions. But the consistency was difficult to spot. What qualifies appeals on Darfur or Burma, but not Gaza?
Even more mystifying is Thompson’s claim that the BBC is performing its public service duty by reporting the row over DEC’s campaign or linking to its campaign on the BBC’s website. Either the BBC backs the DEC’s plea for humanitarian aid or it does not. There are no half measures on this issue. As the BBC’s editor in chief, Thompson had every right to make a judgment like this. And Douglas Alexander should not, as a government minister, have written to the BBC criticizing that decision. His move played right into the corporation’s comfort zone. The BBC found itself back on familiar turf — defending itself from political interference.
This is not an issue of BBC independence. It is about the ends to which it exercises that independence. By rejecting the campaign in principle, the BBC is taking a partisan stance. The ability of the BBC to report unfolding events in Gaza impartially will be diminished as a result.
