Anyone who has worked in charities for any length of time gets used to the notion that what appears to you as being entirely reasonable and uncontentious can appear to those in authority as somehow deeply questionable.  But even I am gob-smacked about the position the BBC (and now Sky) are taking about the Gaza appeal.

Mark Thompson is a reasonable man (or that’s the word, at least) and, for all its faults, the BBC does seek to explain itself at moments like this.  So the reasons for the BBC turning down the approach from the Disasters Relief Committee are set out explicitly on its own website.  There are two of them: first, that there are doubts that the aid would reach those who need it; and second, that because what happened in Gaza is a contentious issue, the BBC cannot broadcast an appeal because it might influence its reputation for impartiality.

We can dismiss the first fairly quickly.  The question of how effective aid would be is one in which the DEC, the charities on the ground, are expert, not Mark Thompson.  Indeed, having raised the point, he quickly dismisses it himself.

No – it is the question of the contentious nature of the conflict which is clearly at the heart of the issue.  The BBC will not show the appeal in case people think they are taking sides, he argues.  What is interesting here is that this is not a judgement they commonly make.  When there have been famines in Sudan or other parts of the world where conflicts have been a major cause of disaster, the BBC has not been noticeably reluctant to support humanitarian efforts.  There, the victims have been treated as just that  - victims, people who are suffering and need help.

The question here is why that is not the case in Gaza.  Are they not suffering?  Is there something about them which means that they do not qualify as victims?  Or is it that the Director General is more afraid of being put under pressure over where he stands between Israel and the Palestinians than on where he stands between the various factions in the Sudan?

Charities do not make moral judgments about people in need. People in Gaza are homeless and homeless people need housing.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 and is filed under Housing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.