Surprise news from Northern Ireland, the BBC gets it badly wrong.

Although a massive fan of RTE (production warts and all), even I don’t think it can compete in terms of quality or variety of output with its neighbour the BBC, an acronym that could justifiably stand for – Best Broadcasting Company – in the world.

From Top Gear to Monty Python, from childrens TV to documentaries, from Wimbledon to Match of the Day, from Radio 4 to the World Service – it has set the standard – and without an advertisement about the place. Even Mrs T, who struggled with its unbending impartiality kept her privatising mits off it.

And impartiality is something that BBC Northern Ireland does extremely well. Tasked with reporting events to a ‘divided community’ where every utterance is automatically analysed for ‘balance’ by a population who don’t even like the same sports and can’t even agree on the names of the places they live in – it is a very tough job indeed.

But impartiality is not of course the only requirement, editorial judgment must reflect the values at the heart of the BBC, values that require the organisation to ‘respect each other’ and that’ celebrate our diversity.’ The BBC must be seen to uphold these values -something that parts of its coverage of the 12th of July (arguably) failed miserably to do.

For many, including myself, the Orange Order is a deeply sectarian organisation. The BBC is funded by the British public though the licence fee and in all likelihood the vast majority of the British mainland public would be appalled at the idea of an organisation that champions and promotes religious intolerance, being treated to uncritical promotional coverage such as provided by BBC Northern Ireland in programs like ‘The Twelfth’

http://195.188.87.10/programmes/b01kv794.

The disgraceful scenes outside the St Patricks church are not, in the view of many, the isolated actions of a few bigots but the manifestation of political and religious bigotry which has been labelled culture.

If the BBC attempted this approach back on the mainland, with an annual celebration of a culture whose adherents were to be bussed up to Jewish, Black or Asian areas of London, so they could triumphantly march through them, whilst reminding the residents of historical arsekickings administered by the marchers forefathers, there would be absolute uproar – and the BBC would very quickly need to find an alternative source of funding.

The values of ‘respect’ and ‘diversity’ are rightly at the heart of the BBC and they need to uphold them even (and perhaps especially) in the volatile environment that is Northern Ireland, even (and perhaps especially) during the marching season.