London, Jan 23, IRNA – The BBC was reported Friday to be leading a boycott of British broadcasters refusing to air a national humanitarian appeal for Gaza, leaving aid agencies with a potential shortfall of of millions of pounds in donations.
The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an umbrella group for 13 British charities, launched an appeal on Thursday, saying the devastation in Gaza was “so huge British aid agencies were compelled to act”.
But the BBC made a rare breach of an agreement dating to 1963, saying it would not give free airtime to the appeal.
Other broadcasters followed suit even though they had previously agreed on the video and script to be shown after primetime news bulletins.
Britain’s state-funder broadcaster claimed it did not want to risk public confidence in its impartiality.
It has already been severely criticised over its alleged pro-Israeli bias in its coverage of Israel’s massacre of more than 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza.
“The decision was made because of question marks about the delivery of aid in a volatile situation and also to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC’s impartiality,” a spokesman was quoted saying.
But the DEC, which was set up in 1963 to coordinate aid agency’s responses at the time of disasters, was perplexed at the BBC’s refusal.
“We are totally apolitical,” its chief executive, Brendan Gormley, said. “This appeal is a response to humanitarian principles. The BBC seems to be confusing impartiality with equal airtime,” he said.
Britain’s leading satellite broadcaster, Sky, suggested the rest of the media had no choice but to follow the BBC’s boycott. “By convention, if all broadcasters do not carry the appeal, then none do. The decision was effectively made for us.”
Main commercial channel, ITV, said that broadcasters had been unable “to reach a consensus necessary for an appeal” after assessing DEC’s needs.
The BBC has been facing protests at several of its offices in Britain over its coverage of Israel’s latest slaughter of Palestinians,
On Monday, Muslim and Jewish women joined forces in a vigil outside the BBC’s Broadcasting House in central London “to spell out the truth about occupied Palestine that the media, beginning with the BBC, refuses to report.”
Broadcasting House is also being used at the gathering point of the third national “Free Gaza” demonstration in the British capital since Israel launched its latest military blitz at the end of last month.
The boycott comes after Muslim aid agencies in Britain have faced increasing restrictions in trying to send emergency assistance to the Palestinians.
The most recent case was the decision last month by Lloyds TSB bank to clearing cheques from Interpal, the UK’s leading charity that supplies humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank.