The British Humanist Association (BHA) has responded to the BBC Trust’s public consultation on the BBC Strategy Review, which restates the BBC’s key principles and establishes the remit of the corporation.
The BHA has used this opportunity to emphasise the failure of the BBC in widening the breath of its coverage relating to belief, and the refusal to commission programming that interrogates moral and ethical issues from a non-religious perspective.
In response to the Strategy Review, the BHA has emphasised the obligations of the BBC as a public service broadcaster to provide comprehensive coverage of a range of beliefs, including non-religious belief such as Humanism.
In addition to highlighting the exclusion of Humanism in its output, the BHA response underlines the disproportionate level of programming on Christianity. The BBC service licence, for example states, “BBC Two should: With BBC One, broadcast at least 110 hours of religious programmes each year.” In relation to the level of church attendance and belief recorded in surveys, this level of coverage appears to greatly exceed demand.
Pepper Harow, BHA Campaigns Officer, commented: ‘The BBC has consistently failed in its mandate to reflect the make-up of the population in terms of religious and non-religious beliefs. There has not been a single programme dedicated specifically for non-religious people, and since only last year has a humanist been permitted to attend the body that advises the BBC on matters of religion and belief.
‘Far from being marginalised, the Church’s grip on public service broadcasting is increasingly incongruous, where despite vanishing church attendance and growing indifference to religion in general, especially among the young, there are still hundreds of hours dedicated to and for religion.’
Notes
For further comment or information, contact Pepper Harow on 020 7462 4992.
Read the BHA’s submission here.
Read more about the BHA’s work on broadcasting.
The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing and supporting the growing population of ethically concerned, non-religious. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for a secular state and an end to discrimination based on religion or belief.