The BBC’s director general Mark Thompson disclosed that producers were faced with the possibilities of “violent threats” instead of normal complaints if they broadcast certain types of satire. He suggested other faiths had “very close identity with ethnic minorities” and as a result were covered in a more careful way by broadcasters.
BBC director general Mark Thompson
In a wide-ranging interview about faith and broadcasting, Mr Thompson disclosed that producers were faced with the possibilities of “violent threats” instead of normal complaints if they broadcast certain types of satire.
He suggested other faiths had “very close identity with ethnic minorities” and as a result were covered in a more careful way by broadcasters.
“Without question, ‘I complain in the strongest possible terms’, is different from, ‘I complain in the strongest possible terms and I am loading my AK47 as I write’,” he said. “This definitely raises the stakes.”
In the interview posted online for the Free Speech Debate, a research project at Oxford University, Mr Thompson said he was a “practising Catholic” who believed that the “truths of the Christian faith” were objective rather than subjective.
But he said Islam was a religion “almost entirely” practised by people who already may feel in other ways “isolated”, “prejudiced against” and who may regard an attack on their religion as “racism by other means”.
He appeared to admit that the public broadcaster’s decision to screen the controversial show “Jerry Springer: The Opera” on BBC TWO in 2005 was a mistake.
More than 45,000 complained about people contacted the BBC to complain about swearing and its irreverent treatment of Christian themes.
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