www.publicservice.co.uk
Thursday, December 04, 2008
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The Foreign Office has effectively stopped the BBC World Service from broadcasting a radio programme relating to the Somalia Sirius Star pirate hijackings. The FO said the programme, which originally appeared on Radio 4 and had been repeated 48 times on the World Service network, was interfering with efforts to bring the hijack to a conclusion. The World Service agreed to the request, even though the programme is still available online.
The episode of From Our Own Correspondent included a report that the pirates could be spoken to by telephone and the FO claimed members of the public were blocking phone lines to the ship, although the 'phone number was never revealed.
The National Union of Journalists is not happy with what it sees as interference in independent reporting and wrote in a letter to World Service director Nigel Chapman: "It may be that there was a good reason for the World Service decision but information from my members suggests otherwise. This is an issue that could severely damage the World Service's reputation for independent journalism because it looks as if we have given into government pressure for no good reason."
However, the BBC said the programme wasn't pulled because of the journalism and the FO had not affected the World Service's independence. A spokesperson said: "The safety of the hostages is paramount and the [Foreign Office] is clear that this request was about saving lives and not editorial interference. We are satisfied that this is the case."
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "The programme in question explained how easy it was to call the pirates on the telephone, on a number which is publicly available. We were asked to approach the BBC since, after each broadcast, the high volume of copycat calls to the number effectively closed the channel of communication with the hostage-takers. This hindered efforts to verify the crew's welfare and encourage their safe release. We explained this concern to the BBC which, upon consideration, undertook not to broadcast later repeats."
Source: Public Servce, Dec 04, 2008