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.)