Please complain to the BBC for not airing Emergency Committe Gaza Crisis Appeal

Just got this e-mail:

I'm sure you have heard about the BBC's decision not to broadcast the Disasters Emergency Committee Gaza Crisis Appeal. This is absolutely appalling and this must be changed.

There is a protest at the moment outside the BBC in Portland Place, sod's law that is on my train line but the trains are out...bastard Transport for London.

Anyway, please please try and make the protest and if not ring or telephone the BBC.

The telephone is 03700 100222, if you ring, make sure you leave contact details and say you WANT a response from the BBC.

However I urge you to complain online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

It's very easy, just follow the steps. Make sure you leave your email so the BBC respond to your complaint. Also, copy and paste your complaint before you send it off, in case the page expires.

Below is my complaint, feel free to use it, please change it a bit so it doesn't look suspect.


The reason it is not in paragraphs, is because when you send it off, it cannot be formatted.



I am appalled and disgusted by the BBC's decision to not broadcast the DEC Gaza Crisis Appeal. The justifications provided by the BBC are simply not valid or good enough. The argument by the BBC that there are 'question marks about the delivery of aid' is not a justification for not showing the DEC appeal. That there may be difficulties in getting aid to recipients is true of any emergency appeal. In Burma and places affected by the Tsunami there was often great difficulty in getting aid to the needy, this did not stop the airing of a DEC appeal. The second argument made by the BBC, that the broadcasting of the DEC Gaza Crisis appeal will affect the impartiality of the BBC, is also unjustified and absurd. The situation in Gaza is a humanitarian crisis, there are thousands of people urgently requiring medical attention, medication, food, electricity and other supplies. By refusing to show the DEC Gaza appeal, the BBC has in fact decided to politicise the issue; the very thing the BBC allegedly sought to avoid. The BBC cannot be accused of taking a side in the conflict by showing the DEC appeal; the Palestinians in Gaza are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the Israelis are not. Additionally I find it deplorable that the BBC has chosen not to follow the example of both ITV and Channel 4 to air the DEC Gaza Crisis Appeal. Similarly the BBC should take heed of the comments of both the International Development Secretary (Douglas Alexander) and the Shadow International Development Secretary (Andrew Mitchell) who have called for the BBC to broadcast the Gaza appeal. I, like many others, wish to know exactly who is responsible for the decision to not broadcast the appeal. As a licence-fee payer, I feel these decision-makers should be held accountable for such an unjustifiable stance. It is not the BBC's right to dictate to the public which appeals should be donated to: the BBC should broadcast the Gaza appeal and allow viewers to decide individually whether they will contribute money to the cause. However it appears the BBC's Israel-centric reporting of the crisis in Gaza has now extended to the decision-making sphere. Over the last month, the BBC's coverage of the situation in Gaza has been deplorable, the BBC has become a platform for Israeli propaganda with Israeli spokespersons peddling the official Israeli line without much question or accountability. The BBC has tried to paint the situation in Gaza as a 'war' between two equal parties, both suffering and both to blame: this has been grossly inaccurate and misleading for the viewer. Even programmes such as Newsnight have failed in terms of fair reporting of the situation, with presenters having an insufficient grasp of the subject matter in order to question effectively the allegations, claims and propaganda of Israeli spokespersons. Similarly coverage of protests in London against the Israeli onslaught has been dominated by stories of violence and rioting - such occurences were on a small-scale and the participants were only a fraction of the protestors, yet they received much more coverage than the main protests. It is somewhat ironic that the BBC is arguing that the DEC Gaza Crisis Appeal should not be shown so as not to jeopardise the BBC's impartiality, when the BBC has flouted rules of impartiality so many times over the last month in its reporting of the crisis in Gaza. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is very grave and the broadcasting of the DEC Gaza Crisis Appeal could do much to raise funds and alleviate the suffering of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza. I would strongly urge the BBC to show the DEC Gaza Crisis Appeal or else risk losing all public confidence in the institution.