BBC Wrong to Air “Rivers of Blood”

I worked for BBC World Service for 20 years from 1983 and was proud to be part of an organisation that broadcast quality, objective news around the world. From Hanoi to Santiago de Chile, millions of poeople tuned in to hear the stories their own local media denied them. So it has been personally distressing to me to witness how the Corporation’s standards and news values have declined in recent years, notably since we have had Conservative Prime Ministers in 10 Downing Street. The BBC possibly swung the Leave victory in the 2016 EU Referendum, by giving undue airtime to Nigel Farage (on Question Time more often than any other person bar the presenter, David Dimbleby)  and by failing to challenge politicians who came out with outright lies on air. But today, the BBC is hitting rock bottom by broadcasting in its entirety Enich Powell’s notorious “Rivers of Blood” speech, which stoked racism and anti-immigrant sentiment in 1960s Britain. To claim that it is justifiable to broadcast the speech now because it is its 50th anniversary is disingenuous. There has already been a surge in xenophobic incidents in Britain since the Brexit vote and the BBC should not be surprised if after today there are more. The producers and managers concerned should hang their heads in shame.