Downing Street Says » Gaza Appeal

» Monday, January 26, 2009

Gaza Appeal

Asked about the Prime Minister s view on the fact that the BBC was not showing a DEC charity appeal for aid to Gaza, the PMS said that the Prime Minister felt this was a decision for the BBC and it was not for the Government to tell any broadcaster what their editorial policy should be.

Put that the Douglas Alexander seemed disappointed by the BBC s decision, the PMS said Douglas Alexander was responsible for development issues and was working hard to promote humanitarian assistance. He had also been saying that this was a decision for the BBC.

Asked if the BBC consulted the Government on whether it should broadcast the appeal, the PMS said he did not know.

Asked if the Government knew the content of the appeal, the PMS said that we were aware of the content because the DEC worked very closely with the Department for International Development. On terms of process questions it was best to speak to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Put that the content of the appeal was approved by the Government, the PMS said that nobody was suggesting that the Government had difficulty with the content of this appeal; we supported it. Equally, we were not going to second guess the editorial decisions of independent broadcasters.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.