This week has been a difficult week for the senior management and board of the BBC. LabourLGB, Lesbian Labour and our members have Iooked on with concern as the news story has unfolded.
We recognise the criticisms of the BBC especially as they pertain to coverage of gender critical or sex realist views. Many of the key voices on the gender critical side of the trans rights debate appear to have been blacklisted by the BBC. Where have been the voices of Julie Bindel, Helen Joyce, Maya Forstater, Kathleen Stock, Graham Linehan, James Dreyfus, JK Rowling. Bev Jackson or Kate Harris? Where have been the voices of the principal organisations putting forward the gender critical view, which surveys have demonstrated is held by the great majority of the British public – Sex Matters, the LGB Alliance, For Women Scotland, Genspect and Transgender Trend? Those voices have gone unheard. We now know from the Michael Prescott report that this was deliberate policy arising from institutional bias within the BBC.
We have also heard the stories of gender critical voices within the BBC who themselves have been gagged and censured and have been forced to leave the broadcaster.
The single notable exception to this otherwise ubiquitous bias was the BBC’s flagship Newsnight programme, home to the excellent investigate journalism of Hannah Barnes. This was at a time when there was less centralised control of journalist teams. Barnes forensically dissected the activities of the Tavistock Clinics Gender Identity Service which unquestioningly affirmed the transition of distressed gender-questioning young people, the majority of whom were same-sex attracted.
It is clear to us that the BBC needs to overhaul not only its senior management but also its Board of Trustees and the influence held by staff special interest networks within the organisation. The BBC must be impartial on every single issue and present a balanced viewpoint to its audience. The people of Britain demand no less.
The BBC is a fundamental and respected part of the fabric of Britain. It should be cherished and preserved and allowed to grow and develop as new technology allows it to reach more and more people throughout the world. But it can only do so if its voice is trusted as being true and impartial, without bias or preference.
Almost every other news source in the UK and elsewhere in the world represents a particular world or political view or a particular commercial interest. The BBC does not, or should not, and long may this be so. People in Britain and across the world rely on the voice of the BBC to be the voice of truth.
The Labour Party and Labour governments have always recognised and valued the role of Public Service Broadcasting in informing, educating and entertaining the public. As LabourLGB and Lesbian Labour we call upon the government and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to ensure that the BBC, following the resignations of its Director General and the Head of News, removes all political and cultural bias from the Board of Trustees and throughout its management and staff structures.
