By Mark Hookham
Political Editor
THREE Leeds MPs have added their voices to the mounting criticism of the BBC for its refusal to televise an appeal for victims of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
John Battle (Leeds West, Lab), Fabian Hamilton (Leeds North East, Lab) and Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West, Lib Dem) have joined more than 100 other MPs in signing a parliamentary motion urging the corporation to reverse its decision.
The Disasters Emergency Committee’s two-minute Gaza Crisis Appeal was screened on Monday by ITV, Channel 4 and Five.
However, BBC bosses have insisted that airing the film would threaten its impartiality and that the corporation should not give the impression it was “backing one side” over the other.
Protests
The decision has sparked more than 15,500 complaints and protests at BBC Broadcasting House.
Mr Battle, a former junior minister, has also raised the issue with ministers at a Commons international development select committee.
Relatives of his sister’s husband live in Gaza and have given him first hand reports of the intense suffering caused by the bombing.
Fabian Hamilton, a member of Labour Friends of Israel, said: “To a child who has lost his parents and whose house is a pile of rubble it doesn’t matter whether it was Israelis or an earthquake. That child needs aid and our help. We have a duty to relieve that suffering.”
Greg Mulholland said he thought the BBC’s reasoning was “utterly flawed.”
A RALLY is to be staged outside the BBC’s regional HQ in Leeds to protest at the corporation’s refusal to broadcast a charity appeal for funds to help the people of Gaza.
The rally takes place this evening from 5pm to 7pm outside BBC Broadcasting Centre in St Peter’s Square, near Leeds bus station.
The BBC has refused to broadcast the appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee which includes charities such as Christian Aid and Oxfam.
It says to do so might lead to accusations of “bias.”
Source: Yorkshire Evening Post, 28 January 2009