By a BBC activist

It’s surely been a bad week at the BBC for DG Mark Thompson, after his personally imposed ban on the airing of the Disasters and Emergency Committee appeal for Gaza caused outrage within his own organisation and across virtually the spectrum of political opinion.

New Labour ministers and opposition politicians, 170 MPs, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, 21,000 viewers, anti-war activists, and much of the press lined up to heap scorn on the paltry reasoning that allowing the humanitarian appeal to be broadcast risked “compromising public confidence in the BBC’s impartiality in the context of covering a continuing news story where issues of responsibility for civilian suffering and distress are intrinsic to the story and remain highly contentious”, and on the claim – denied by the UN – that the aid delivery situation on the ground was too volatile.

Many asked why this argument was not also put forward in previous conflicts, such as those in Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur, when the BBC went ahead with the appeal. Situations of humanitarian need tend to arise from wars, and in wars there tend to be competing versions of the truth.

The BBC is hurting over its decision. The Guardian reports that the corporation is being threatened with legal action alleging the ban was discriminatory. Along with the high-profile example of IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei, other contributors have refused to take part in programmes.

Around the world, but particularly in the Middle East, correspondents are finding that they are no longer met with the usual willingness to participate, and the goodwill to which they were accustomed has turned to contempt. At home and abroad, BBC premises have been subjected to multiple sit-ins and protests – including, according to one report, academics who occupied its offices in Gaza, demanding BBC reporters leave Gaza immediately.

Inside the BBC, there is deep unhappiness. Editors of the BBC’s in-house magazine Ariel – not exactly the most trenchant of BBC critics – failed to find a single employee willing to stick up for the decision when selecting the correspondence that took up the week’s letters page.

BBC staff have also made efforts to protest, issuing NUJ resolutions and, in at least one instance, launching a petition, though some efforts have been stymied by rightwing activists.

And there must be dark mutterings among senior staff, including the editors of Middle East output who deny having been consulted over the matter.

What may hurt Thompson most may be the blow to his standing and the focus the issue has brought to his own political agenda. After about 35 politicians met with him in a futile attempt to make him see sense, MP Jeremy Corbyn reported that he had been “bullish and very repetitive”. He has been exposed as intellectually lacking, forced continually to trot out the same unpersuasive mantra about impartiality.

And questions are now being raised over whether Thompson and his henchmen have struck some kind of deal with Israel, both out of a personal sympathy with Zionism and out of the BBC management’s headlong and foolhardy rush towards commercialisation.

No smoking gun yet, but journalists should keep digging.

Posted by NUJ Left