BBC refuses to air Gaza charity appeal

[Colston]

I didn't realise Mark Thompson had a Jewish wife and had had talks with Sharon....

[Colston]

I think I might stop paying my TV licence in protesr... has anyone come across this being done?

[mickyv]

GG warned against not paying the TV licence as the penalty is £1,000 !!

Sky have announced today that they also will NOT being airing the Gaza appeal, so they are much more vulnerable to people cancelling their Sky contracts.

[luke]

i canceled my tv license last year after complaining to the bbc and getting the crappest of replies from helen boaden.

colston, stop the war have emailed today about the license;

STOP THE WAR COALITION
NEWSLETTER
No. 1080 26 January 2009
Email office@stopwar.org.uk
Tel: 020 7278 6694
Web: http://www.stopwar.org.uk

EMERGENCY BBC PROTEST
MONDAY 26 JANUARY, 5.00PM
BBC BROADCASTING HOUSE,
PORTLAND PLACE, LONDON W1A 1AA
COLLECTIVE RETURN OF BBC TV LICENSES

Stop the War is organising a mass return of TV licenses to the
BBC for those incensed by the continuing refusal of the BBC to
broadcast and emergency appeal for Gaza.

The fact that other channels including Channel 4, ITV and
Channel 5 are showing the appeal tonight shows how isolated
and extreme the BBC is on this issue.

For those living in London there will be a collective return
of BBC TV licenses on Monday 26 January, at 5.30pm, at BBC
Broadcasting House, Portland Place, W1A 1AA. If you live in
London and want to register your disgust at the BBC
management's behaviour, do join us, if you can.

We are asking local Stop the War groups outside London, which
have a BBC office in their area, to organise similar license
return events, notifying the local media beforehand.

A number of our supporters have informed us that they have
written to the BBC saying they have cancelled their direct
debit for their TV license. If you are planning to do the
same, please inform Stop the War at office@stopwar.org.uk.

The BBC said that by yesterday they had received over 11,000
complaints. That figure is bound to be far higher by now,
given how there is now virtually unanimous agreement across
the full spectrum of opinion in Britain that the BBC must
reverse its disgraceful decision. Reports say that the vast
majority of BBC staff are outraged by the blocking of the Gaza
appeal. We need to do all we can to increase the pressure on
the BBC management.

If you have not complained to the BBC yet, do so here:
PHONE: 03700 100 222
TEXT: 03700 100 212
ONLINE:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complaints_stage1.shtml

You can donate to the appeal that the BBC is denying a
broadcast here:
https://www.donate.bt.com/bt_form_gaza.html

****************************************
SUCCESS FOR OCCUPATION OF BBC SCOTLAND

Over 100 protestors from the Stop the war and Palestinian
groups occupied the BBC's Scotland headquarters in Glasgow.
The occupation was a complete success in increasing pressure
on the BBC and getting widespread media coverage. The BBC
management conceded to the protesters' demands for a meeting
with representatives from the BBC national executive. There
were no arrests. For a full report, go to:
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/

--

and heres some pictures from the occupation of the bbc in scotland

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gphrc-palestine/sets/72157612985084878/detail/

[Brown Sauce]

they say that they're not showing this for reasons of impartiality.

After repeating this on the radio 5 live news this morning, the very next item was one that described hamas as a terrorist guerrilla organisation.

[faceless]

oh man, I wish I'd known about the occupation of BBC Scotland. When I first heard about their refusal to show the appeal my first thought was to get about 50 people together and go down there to noise them up... and the people who did it are the ones I met a few weeks back - good on them!

[luke]

heres a post about glasgow from medialens;

Just back from our inspiring BBC occupation. We managed to simply walk in to the building and unfurl our banners, flags and placards before the police arrived in a panic to seal off the main doors. We managed to let some other late arrivals in through a side door. Spirited chants filled the lobby as staff and police considered what to do.

The message was aired loudly that the BBC are utterly complcit in the crimes against Gaza and that their decision not to allow the DEC Appeal showed them in their true establishment colours.

The police then announced we had 15 minutes to leave before arrests were made. We refused, explaining that this was a peaceful, moral protest in support of those already imprisoned and suffering in Gaza.

Various media started calling and arriving, which was the principal point of the occupation. But not, as we were demanding, the BBC itself. Yes, I know, no need to arrive when they're already in the building.

At this point, Tony Benn called to express his support and his words were read out over a mobile to loud cheers.

Eventually Ian Small, the BBC's Head of Public and Corporate Affairs was summoned and our group nominated five people to speak with him - including myself. No wish to personalise what we do here, but, suffice to say, Mr Small offers perfect insight into how such people get to be where they are at the BBC.

During our meeting - which we insisted take place in transparent observation of our group rather than the back room he had demanded - the points about the BBC disgraceful decision were put. Predictably, we got the template responses and assurances that 'our concerns would be registered' with Helen Boaden et al - a useful moment for me to to relate our understanding of this token procedure and the real issue of institutional bias. Our more pertinent demand was that the BBC come and report this protest inside their own building. He agreed to convey this to the newsroom.

A further meeting was secured with senior BBC directors at BBC Scotland. But, personally, I see no purpose sitting in panelled rooms speaking to power in this way. The real point here was to maximise publicity - which, I hope, we managed to do.

Having voted to leave the building, our objectives achieved, a number of press outlets - including the BBC - were waiting outside to cover the jubilant crowd.

This action illustrates for me the real value of direct, peaceful civil disobedience.

John

[faceless]

I wonder if that's John of GPHRC? I like his style whoever it is. If it is him, he's the husband of 'Margaret' who phoned in to the Galloway show a few weeks back.

[faceless]

I saw the twat in a suit from Sky earlier explaining why they weren't running the appeal either - he seems to be programmed with the same corporate cuntitude as Catherine Thomson at the BBC.

[faceless]

Beeb airwave strike on Gaza is deadly
George Galloway
Jan 26 2009
www.dailyrecord.co.uk

THE BBC's admirable reporter Alan Johnston was rescued from his cruel incarceration in Gaza by the Palestinian government led by Hamas. At the time, the BBC thanked the people of Gaza, and Hamas Prime Minister Ismael Haniya in particular, for breaking the criminal gang of extortionists who had seized their man - at the risk of their own lives to save his.

Now in the winter of their hardships, as 61,000 families shiver in the ruins of their bombed-out houses, in rags and hungry, the same BBC has stabbed them in the back. The achievement of the corporation's management, in uniting the Government, the opposition, the churches, the press, right and left, the anti-war movement, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, on one side and they and the Israel lobby on the other is almost unparalelled in modern public relations.

After a 22-day attack which has left thousands of children dead or orphaned and left the Strip looking like a moonscape, the publicly funded, bloated, arrogant, insensitive bosses who've presided over the Beeb through scandals from Blue Peter to Jonathan Ross have now launched their own airwave strike on the refugees.

And their smokescreen of "impartiality" will prove as deadly to these refugees as any cloud of white phosphorous gas. The BBC, once the proud emblem of Britishness, is now branded around the world, and dangerously the Muslim world, as an arm of Israeli propaganda.

Its journalists - new Alan Johnstons - have been imperilled. Its reputation for "impartiality" shot full of as many holes as a UN compound under Israeli bombers. Its arguments against broadcasting the Disasters Emergency Committee Appeal for Gaza are an insult. First to the intelligence of the people who pay their licence fees and second to the British charities within the DEC, the likes of Christian Aid, Save the Children (Patron HRH the Princess Anne), Oxfam and the rest.

The BBC's claim that they can't be sure the aid will get through is aclear accusation against the very humanitarian organisations we trust to deliver aid from Britain in every other world disaster around the world.

In any case, Gaza is a tiny place, now, though not when it most mattered, moving with western journalists. Gaza is sealed shut. Where could Christian Aid's deliveries of medicines and nappies go if not to the suffering?

The mouthpiece of the corporation in this miserable scandal is a Scot, like Alan Johnston. She is Caroline Thompson, the daughter of Dundee's highest political achiever, the late Lord George Thompson, a member of Harold Wilson's cabinet in the 1960s and a former European Union Commissioner.

Email her at caroline.thompson@bbc.co.uk and let her have a piece of your mind.

[faceless]

Brendan Gormley of DEC on this evening's Channel 4 news.

[Mandozilla]

Sh*t me I am gutted I missed that one! Would have been there no question... i need to get on someones mailing list or something equally as yuppie. I think this was shocking and I know if I was with sky I would dump the fu*kers... as far as the TV license is concerned I will have no beef with mailing it back.

Mandozilla

[faceless]

Mando, don't cut off your nose to spite your face - considering how often the BBC changes tack with the prevailing wind, I don't think it will be long before there's new people in charge.

Here's a video from Saturday in London - more of this production quality is what's needed.

[faceless]

[Mandozilla]

Of course I never did cut off my nose, but i am becoming more and more aware of BBC's biast towards Isreal and paying them seems to be the last thing i want to do. I will keep my eyes pealed for a change. But i have more problems with the TV licence every year and the cost goes up with that.

Mandozilla