BBC in censorship controversy

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a respected organisation which has countless admirers the world over. During its more than 70 years of existence the BBC has won a reputation not only for professionalism but also, no less, for impartial and objective broadcasting which is the envy of most.

In spite of its probably unique policy to ban advertising from its programmes and therefore its total reliance on licence fees for its existence the BBC has admirably managed to retain its total independence of those who wield power at Westminster.

However there has recently been growing criticism in Britain at the way the BBC treats questions dealing with faith and morals. Some have been accusing the corporation of not being objective and impartial enough over such issues.

A UK anti-abortion group, the Pro-Life Alliance Party, is currently considering whether to appeal to the European courts following a House of Lords decision which reversed an Appeals Court ruling against the BBC. The Court of Appeal had found that the BBC's decision to censor parts of a programme on abortion by the Pro-Life Alliance as "illegal".

The BBC had refused to screen in full a Pro-Life Alliance Party political broadcast on the grounds that it contained "shocking images which offended against taste and decency".

However a fortnight ago the House of Lords - Britain's highest Court of Appeal - overturned the court's decision and ruled in favour of the BBC. This ruling was warmly welcomed by the BBC's chief political adviser. "We are absolutely delighted," she was reported to have said, adding that the BBC had fought the case "not only on behalf of the broadcasters themselves but on behalf of our audiences".

In sharp contrast a spokeswoman for the Pro-Life Party denounced the ruling which she described as a blow to freedom of speech. "Channel 4 can show unchallenged a Chinese artist eating a baby, but abortion pictures offend the taste and decency of the hypersensitive BBC... A nation justly weeps for the terrible injuries inflicted on the Iraqi child who was maimed by war and his dramatic plight is pictured in the front pages of the media worldwide.

"But the same compassionate nation is prohibited from seeing the reality of the fate of the aborted unborn English child, massacred every day in the UK with figures now reaching beyond six million."

It would be interesting to know how the European courts will decide if and when the pro-life group appeals the House of Lords' verdict.