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Springer sprung
Granville Williams
Thank goodness the BBC screened Springer show
The BBC doesn’t always resist pressure to transmit programmes as a result of concerted lobbying, but thank goodness the Director General, Mark Thompson, stood firm after the concerted campaign by the Evangelical Alliance and Mediawatch to get Jerry Springer the Opera taken off air.
Let us hope, too, that Mark Thompson discussed the issue with the BBC chairman, Michael Grade, and got full support for his stand. After all, at Channel 4 Grade got his fair share of moral outrage directed at him, when Daily Mail columnist, Paul Johnson dubbed him the 'pornographer-in-chief'.
Mediawatch is the renamed organisation founded by Mary Whitehouse
back in the 1960s. Her Clean Up Television campaign in 1964 led to the establishment of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association in 1965.
Clearly what both organisations involved in the protest are drawing on is the model of well-publicised moral outrage, backed up by threats, which religious pressure groups in the USA use against broadcasts and films which they find offensive.
And there have been some success in the UK, as result of religious pressure, to limit freedom of expression.
Back in September 2004 the BBC bowed to pressure from the Roman Catholic Church and scrapped a ten-part animated sitcom, Popetown, scheduled to appear on the digital channel BBC3. Roman Catholics mobilized during the summer of 2004, with politicians being urged to act on behalf of their constituents, to prevent transmission of the Simpsons-style cartoon series. Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell and President of the National Communications Commission, said Catholics 'view this as an irreverent, gratuitious and publicly funded attack on their faith.' Which was all very strange, really, because only a tiny number of people protesting, if indeed any one at all, could have seen the planned programmes.
The BBC3 Controller, Stuart Murphy, explaining the decision to scrap the series, said, 'There is a fine judgement line in comedy between the scurrilously funny and the offensive.' Well, fine, but the successful action by the Roman Catholic Church meant we were denied the opportunity to make our own judgement on the programmes. Instead we were subject to a form of censorship imposed by a religious group.
Pressure by religious groups to ban plays, television programmes and films which they deem offensive is on the increase. The CPBF has always argued that we should be able to read books, watch television programmes or see plays and films to make our own minds up about whether they are offensive, a threat to national security, or whatever other spurious reason is advanced to prevent us from doing this. So, two cheers to the BBC over its stand on Jerry Springer the Opera and why not let Channel 4 show an episode of Popetown in the series it will be showing later this year on censored and banned films?
Last modified: Wednesday, January 12, 2005
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Miscellany
Journalists rally to support stricken colleagues in Asia
Open Access - a publishing revolution?
Spinwatch gets a great launch
Broadcasting: healthy diet or junk food?
Shutting Down Indymedia: A real cause for concern
Trade Unions – a response: Operation Scapegoat Revisited
Challenging Corporate Media: 'Outfoxed', A Robert Greenwald film
WITHOUT COMMENT
Censored 2005: Peter Phillips and Project Censored (Seven Stories Press) £12.99
Iraqi journalists celebrate release of French colleagues
Your Right To Know....
IFJ Welcomes Pledge on Gongadze Case
CPBF attacks Thompson's 'Threats to the BBC'
BBC joint unions condemn Thompson plan
NUJ members to resist job cuts
Galloway wins libel case decisively
IFJ welcomes Ukrainian call for independent journalism
BP's con-tract of the century
Human rights group says Ukraine coverage is biased
New report on media ownership
IndyMedia seizure: the facts
Campaign, WACC join the wave of protest in support of IndyMedia
Wanted: Views on the future of local television
Another world is possible
CPBF adds its voice to IFJ protest
Without Comment 1
Without Comment 2
Whistleblowers get organised
Obituary: Paul Foot
Broadcasting: the European dimension
