BBC Failure to Report 10,000 Muslims Anti-Free Speech Demo

[Teddy Bear]

I posted this originally in a relevant thread but felt it deserved its own entry here.

Somebody complained to the BBC about their not producing any report about the protest against free speech by 10,000 Muslims outside Downing Street. Here's the reply he received:

Thanks for recently contacting the BBC. We aim to reply to complaints within 10 working days (around 2 weeks) and do so for most of them but cannot for all. The time taken depends on the nature of your complaint, how many others we are dealing with and can also be affected by practical issues such as whether a production team is available or away on location.

This is to let you know that we have referred your complaint to the relevant staff but that it may take longer than 10 working days to reply. We therefore ask you not to contact us further in the meantime. If it does prove necessary however, please use our webform, quoting any reference number we provided. This is an automatic email sent from an account which is not monitored so you cannot reply to this email address.

In order to use the licence fee efficiently we may not investigate every issue if it does not suggest a substantive breach of guidelines, or may send the same reply to everyone if others have complained about the same issue. You can read full details of our complaints procedures and how we consider the issues raised in feedback at www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/handle-complaint/. In the meantime we’d like to thank you for contacting us with your concerns. We appreciate your patience in awaiting a response.

Kind regards”

Obviously a very difficult question for them.

A further reply regarding the complaint made above was received from the BBC.
Basically it says 'we decide which stories we want to cover, and if you don't like it tough shit'.

“Thank you for contacting us about BBC News. I understand you were concerned that BBC News did not cover the Muslim Action Forum protest at Downing Street on 8th February.

I can appreciate that you felt this event should have been reported on so I’m sorry if you were disappointed with the lack of coverage.

We know that not everyone will agree with our choices on which stories to cover, and the prominence that we give to them. These are subjective decisions made by our news editors, and we accept that not everyone will think that we are correct on each occasion.

There are several factors that we take into consideration when deciding how to put together our news bulletins. For example, whether the story is new and requires immediate coverage, how unusual the story is, and how much national interest there is in the story.

However, we appreciate the feedback that our viewers and listeners give us when they feel a story has been overlooked or marginalised and I am grateful that you have taken the time to contact us regarding this matter.

Please be assured that I have included your complaint on our audience feedback report which is sent to news editors, programme producers and senior management each morning. These reports are among the most widely read sources of feedback in the BBC and ensures that your complaint has been seen by the right people quickly. This helps inform their decisions about current and future programmes.

Thanks again for getting in touch.

Kind regards

Jannine Matthews

BBC Complaints

The person who made the 2 complaints to the BBC shown above, about their failure to report about the 10,000 Muslim demonstrators outside Downing Street against free speech, followed up on the last reply he received, and got this:

(Basically - don't call us - we'll call you)

Thank you for taking time to contact us again recently. We had referred your complaint to the relevant staff and are normally able to investigate and reply to most complaints at this stage (which is stage 1b of the complaints process) within 20 working days of receipt, or around four weeks. However this is to inform you that we believe it may now take longer than 20 working days before you receive our reply.

We apologise for this and have brought the matter to the attention of the relevant staff again. The delay in answering may be due to their unavailability or other production commitments. We therefore ask you not to contact us further in the meantime. If however it does prove necessary to do so please use our webform at www.bbc.co.uk/complaints or write to us, quoting the case reference number we have provided.

We aim to use your licence fee as efficiently as we can, so if you have complained about the same issues as others we will send our response to you and everyone. We may also not investigate or reply in great detail if a complaint doesn’t suggest a potential breach of BBC standards, or a significant issue of general importance. This is in line with the BBC Trust’s complaints procedures which you can read at: www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/governance/complaints_framework/

We appreciate your continuing patience in waiting for a response and will reply as soon as possible.

Kind regards

BBC Complaints team

[Teddy Bear]

Well he received another message from the BBC, which by the look of it will probably be the last.

“We apologise for the delay in replying to your e-mail. We realise that our correspondents appreciate a quick response and we’re sorry that you had to wait on this occasion.

The fact that a march takes place does not necessarily make it newsworthy, no matter what the issue involved. To take one example, marches happen in London most weekends and we do not cover them all. It is the nature of such events that those taking part consider them to be newsworthy, but we must bear in mind other factors, such as competing events happening at the same time and how best to use our resources. The 8 February was busy news day, with our bulletins covering the ongoing negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and the government’s extension of pension bonds, among other stories.

We are sorry to tell you that we have nothing to add to our previous reply. We do not believe your complaint has raised a significant issue of general importance that might justify further investigation. We will not therefore correspond further in response to additional points, or further comments or questions, made about this issue or our responses to it.

We realise you will be disappointed to hear this but hope this explains why we are not able to take your complaint further. If you remain dissatisfied about our decision you can appeal to the BBC Trust, the body which represents licence fee payers. The Trust has asked that we should explain to complainants that the BBC’s Royal Charter draws a clear distinction between the role of the Trust – which determines the overall scope of the BBC’s services and sets its standards – and that of the BBC Executive – which runs the Corporation and decides what to broadcast and publish.”

...ongoing negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and the government’s extension of pension bonds,...
'Busy news day' that explains it.