Call for solidarity with protest to Sky and the BBC

international | crime and justice | news report Monday January 26, 2009 13:38 by Miriam

Broadcasters refuse to air emergency aid appeal for Gaza

The Disaster Emergency Committee in Britain, which is a group of about 20 of the country's leading charities is making an appeal for urgent aid for the people of Gaza. Britain's broadcasters have for about 40 years aired these appeals free of charge. By convention, the appeal will only be broadcast if all of the broadcasters will agree to do it. The BBC has refused to broadcast it and so too have Sky - on the grounds that it would bring their 'impartiality' into question. The BBC Director General and the corporation's executive committee made the decision late last week . It has caused outrage all over Britain and within the corporation itself where staff and unions are deciding what action they can take to make senior management reverse this decision. Staff have been threatened with the sack for speaking out in public.

There is another demo at the BBC in London this afternoon which follows other protests on Saturday and Sunday at BBC premises in London, Glasgow and Belfast - protestors are returning their licence fees en masse and a call is going out to all Sky viewers in Ireland and Britain to cancel their subscriptions by simply stopping their direct debit or standing orders.

Speaking to the Press Office at the DEC appeal a few moments ago they had not so far considered asking RTE to air the appeal but the idea is now being considered. Let's hope that RTE will agree to do it if asked.

The DEC website appeal is here:

http://www.dec.org.uk/

You can phone in or make a donation online.

The decision by Sky and the BBC is likely to cost the appeal millions since it is obviously much harder to reach as many people without their assistance. The grounds on which they have refused are an outrage. Far from being impartial, it's all of a piece with both organisation's extraordinarily biased coverage of the event which was almost universally pro Israeli. The appeal itself is completely neutral based only on the fact that there is a humanitarian crisis and appalling suffering in Gaza at present. People are dying needlessly for lack of basic medical supplies and equipment. DEC is not politically aligned in any way and will send aid into any disaster zone however the circumstances have come about.

The only power we have to persuade Sky or the BBC to reverse this atrocious decision is stop paying the subscriptions.