Religious leaders discuss the refugee crisis. Picture by Daniel Leal-Olivas PA Wire/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.When the BBC white paper was released earlier this year, much of the national discussion concentrated on the fairness of the broadcaster’s political coverage. Whether it was giving attention to under-reported social issues, or reporting on the ongoing issues in the Labour party fairly, the case for both reforming, and privatising the broadcaster seemed to rest on its benefit to the public on a political level.
There was no doubt that the white paper had made some feel alienated. And one of those just happened to be a national institution : The Church of England. A few days after the white paper was published, the CofE expressed “concern that the coverage of religion and other beliefs is barely mentioned in the White Paper and only in passing in the draft Agreement” adding that “Christian churches and other faith communities play a key role in our national and international life. “The BBC needs to depict this contribution fairly across its output, including by recognising the role religion plays in world affairs and reflecting this in news, current affairs, documentary and drama.”
The role of religion at the BBC has always been a contentious one, and in recent years, the case of cutting- or even scrapping- the department for religion and ethics has gotten stronger. According to the BBC Charter, the organisation is bound to broadcast at least 110 hours of faith-based content per year, spanning across television and radio- considerably larger than it’s rivals at ITV and Channel 4. And while BBC religion coverage has been criticised in recent years by many Christian bodies, not least the Church of England, for treating Christianity as a “rare species”, others have argued that the department is “too Christian,” leading its current head Aaqil Ahmed to announce his desire to produce more content focusing on Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and other minority faiths.
