BBC bias
The BBC Trust has rejected complaints against a TV drama that showed a fanatical British Christian beheading a moderate Muslim. The offending episode of Bonekickers was aired in July 2008, sparking fresh claims of anti-Christian bias at the BBC.
The BBC Trust, a group of ‘independent trustees acting in the public interest’, rejected suggestions that the drama associated fanatical Christianity with evangelicalism and portrayed evangelical Christians offensively according to the Christian Institute.
Damian Thompson, the Daily Telegraph religious affairs writer, said: ‘Only a BBC drama series would, to quote the complainant, “transfer the practice of terrorist beheadings from Islamist radicals to a fantasised group of fundamentalist Christians”.’
The BBC Trust’s decision came in the same week that the BBC apologised to the Muslim Council of Britain over accusations that the group supports attacks on British troops.
The accusation came in an edition of the BBC’s topical debate show, Question Time. A £30,000 payout and an apology have been offered by the BBC, despite the fact that the Government has expressed similar sentiments about the same group.
In October last year, Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, said Islam should be treated more sensitively than Christianity because it is less integrated into our society. Speaking back in 2006, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, said that Christians took more knocks in BBC programmes than other faiths.
