A BAFTA-nominated documentary maker has accused the BBC of banning his latest film about life in a remote Highland glen because it shows a lack of impartiality about wind farms.
BBC bosses part-funded the short film Arcadia by controversial Scots film producer David Graham Scott.
But the BBC has refused to broadcast the finished film, warning Scott that the documentary does not meet its strict rules on objectivity…Scott said: “This was not meant to be a political film. It is more about the impact of modernity on an ancient landscape where people are having to cope with the modern world.
“I don’t have a problem with the BBC’s impartiality guidelines, but I think my film has been misinterpreted. I wouldn’t want to alter the film to get it broadcast as that might ruin it.”…Protesters fighting the impact of wind farms in Scotland insist the film should be aired to highlight one of the biggest issues in rural Scotland amid the plight of communities where the farms are planned.
Bob Graham, who has fought a long-running campaign against wind farms across Scotland because of their visual impact, said: “The BBC has a duty to show realistic depictions of what wind farms can do to fragile environments and communities. They say the film is biased. I would say the BBC is biased in favour of wind farms, and that is why it will not show this documentary.”
Here’s Scott’s film about an ardent Scottish republican campaigner made as part of a series called The New Ten Commandments which was broadcast last year. This passed the BBC’s impartiality guidelines, but a film highlighting opposition to wind farms did not. Thou shalt not take the name of climate change in vain!
Scott’s wind farm film was “one of seven films shot through the Bridging The Gap programme, which seeks to promote work by young Scots directors.” It will be interesting to see the subject matter and “impartiality” of the films the BBC does broadcast.
(By the by – the Scottish republican seen in the above film has left this comment, among others, at YouTube:
If the Queen or any royalist successor is banned from Scotland’s roads and rivers, and shot on sight for defying a ban then Scotland SHALL be free of monarchy from its veins.
Pleasant chap.)
I haven’t watched any lately because I got so sick of its pro-climate change propaganda which got so bad that nearly everything I watched about the natural world (and many other programs) would have the one sided ‘climate change slot’. Are they still doing this? So what about “impartiality” when the BBC thinks it ok to insert any spurious climate change nonsense in many of its programs?
To get your work on the BBC there are areas that must be covered to help with it being passed.
Part of being ‘uniquely funded’ would seem to include some ‘unique’ funding rules, too?
All guidelines are equal, but some are more equal than others?
I would happily agree with the BBC that one sided documentaries should not be aired if this was their normal criteria for saying what or what cannot be shown, but we all know that impartiality only crops up when programmes break their rules on AGW propaganda.
Maybe the BBC has signed Ed Millibands “pledge”?
http://www.edspledge.com/advert-tell-a-friend?utm_source=taomail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=100146+Ed%27s+Pledge+-+the+advert+they+are+trying+to+ban&tmtid=732-100146-2-442-195575
The guy in the film is a complete cnut so the Beeb actually did us a favour by not airing this. I find a lot more to annoy me about this prick than lack of wind farm coverage – although all the green nutter wind farm tripe annoys the hell out of me too!! And as for the comments – his are downright treasonous!
>:o
BBC LIE: “impartiality” re: monarchy VS republic
The BBC was advertising its “BBC Trust” and how to get in touch with them. Now I don’t trust their response to complaints but, “what the hell” I thought, I might as well fire off a complaint letter or two, to let off steam at the royalist b******s. Now I am publishing my complaints in a post in my For Freedom Forums alongside the worthless replies I got from the BBC staff. Link to the post in my forums –
http://scot.extroverthost.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1541#1541
I was trying to quote my emails here, even one of them would have been something but the 3000 character limit imposed by this forum is preventing me from posting the content here so you will need to check out the post on my forums to read the exchange of emails between BBC staff and myself re: “impartiality”.
– Peter Dow
I’m the Scottish republican socialist guy featured in David Graham Scott’s film “The Right to Freedom of Expression” which the BBC did broadcast and that was the only 10 minutes I have been speaking on TV in my life.
Pardon me – David Graham’s Scott was entitled “The Right to Freedom of Assembly”. :-[
Finally got my profile sorted out. Yes those two posts above are mine.