Wednesday 14 December 2011

BBC reply concerning Feltham and Heston By-Election Biased Coverage


The British Broadcasting Corporation's reply regarding our complaint could be the source of yet another complaint. On Saturday, December 3rd, 2011, in its political coverage of the Feltham and Heston Parliamentary by-Election, BBC News interviewed candidates of several political parties, including UKIP that came second behind the British National Party in the previous election, but conveniently avoided interviewing Dave Furness.

What happened on Saturday, December 3rd 2011 and the reply we received from the BBC merely confirms what we already knew about the BBC’s extremely biased journalistic policies.

Mentioning somebody is not the same as giving somebody the opportunity to talk and we were not given the opportunity to talk. This is nothing less than manipulation by the media with intent to influence the outcome of the by-Election in Feltham and Heston. This is what we in the British National Party have to contend with on a daily basis.

When I contacted OFCOM I was told that I had to send a complaint to the BBC. This is how things work in Britain. The BBC is the accused, the defence attorney, the prosecutor, the jury and the judge in the case.

"Dear British National Party London Regional Press Officer CORTIGLIA
Thank you for your comments regarding ‘The Daily Politics’ broadcast on 2nd December 2011.

I understand you felt that our coverage of the Feltham and Heston by-election campaign was biased, because the BNP candidate David Furness wasn’t interviewed.

Adam Fleming’s report and the following studio discussion were conducted against a background of growing debate around Europe. In addition to this, UKIP came second in a parliamentary by-election earlier this year and polled higher than the Liberal Democrats in a newspaper poll taken the weekend before the programme was broadcast. We therefore felt that focussing on UKIP – as the most high profile party to campaign for the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union was editorially justified.

It is also important to note that the BNP were not omitted from this feature. Following the clip of the UKIP candidate, the script made clear that: “UKIP’s battle plan is complicated by the BNP who actually beat them here at the last election and are standing again”.

We therefore feel that coverage was proportionate, fair and in line with our Editorial Guidelines.

I do however understand that you have strong feelings on this and I want to assure you that your comments were forwarded onto the relevant editorial staff, including the Editor of the programme.

Thanks once again for taking the time to contact us.

Kind Regards


BBC Complaints"

Having read some of the comments made by the BBC regarding party political profiles concerning Europe, I come to the conclusion that BBC journalists are absolutely ignorant of what the British National Party stands for and that therefore we should send them our party political programme detailing our position regarding the European Union.

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