CENSORSHIP AND THE BBC

Early day motion 697, tabled 10 February 2003 by George Galloway (Labour). Signed by 20 members.

That this House expresses its concern at the terms of the e-mail reportedly sent by Richard Sambrook to the BBC News editors, which appears to be an attempt to manipulate coverage of the drive to war on Iraq by censoring what Sambrook calls extreme anti-war opinion, a concept of which Orwell would have been proud; reminds the BBC that it is the British Broadcasting Corporation paid for by the licence fees of the nation, which has the right to see and hear its view accurately represented and not filtered according to a bureaucratic template of how many expressions of a view are to be permitted on phone-ins and polls or according to an entirely subjective and potentially sinister judgement about which anti-war views are too extreme to be aired; and notes the BBC's problem that not enough British people are phoning the Corporation in support of war but doubts whether the proper way to deal with this is to deny the full extent of public opposition.

Signatures by party: Labour 20.