‘BBC put Muslims before YOU!’

Thursday, 16 October 2008 11:34

A ridiculous front page and story in the Daily Star today on the speech by Mark Thompson, BBC Director General, at THEOS on Tues 14 Oct. The paper claims the ‘BBC put Muslims before YOU!'

The paper continues with ‘He [Thompson] would not allow jokes about Muslims’, and that he ‘announced the ban, saying they [Muslims] were “more sensitive” than Christians’.

What the BBC DG actually said was that the BBC was sensitive to the minority status of Muslims in the UK and the disparity between Christianity and Islam as religions with different sized constituencies with a marked disparity in their relationship with wider society.

Thompson clearly stated that the BBC would broadcast programming that was of a critical nature of all religions, without exception. A statement reinforced by the clarification issued by the BBC yesterday:

'What Mark Thompson said is that all religions are not the same - he did not say Islam, or indeed any faith, should be treated more sensitively than Christianity.'

Ignoring both the remarks of the BBC DG and the subsequent clarification in response to stories published in the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, the Star repeats the allegations with an obscene perversion of Thompson's comments on its front page. It distorts matters further by claiming the BBC has instated a ‘ban’ on jokes about Muslims but not Christians.

You can contact the Daily Star via email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or by post: Daily Star, Express Newspapers, Northern & Shell Building, 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EN.

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