The cross and the veil
- 24 Dec 06, 03:09 PM
If you asked me what words described the most challenging news theme of 2007, I would answer 鈥渢he cross and the veil鈥. For me, that little phrase has become a shorthand for the divisions around identity, religion and politics which have galvanised fury and passion in many of our audiences and given us more than a few editorial headaches 鈥 many of which have been reflected through this Editors鈥 blog.
For an organisation committed to impartiality 鈥 which means we don鈥檛 take sides 鈥 we try to reflect all and every opinion in an argument. In practical terms, that meant that early in the year we showed enough of the Danish cartoons to give audiences an idea of what infuriated some Muslims. But we did not show them fully. We felt that would have caused gratuitous offence. Consequently we got it in the neck from both sides. Some called us cowardly for failing to defend free speech; others said we were offensively provocative in showing anything at all. Five Live was targeted by a systematic lobby campaign against the cartoons being shown and there was a small demonstration outside Television Centre. Being impartial, we reflected both sides attacking us on our own airwaves and quietly braced ourselves for the next such row.
It came in the form of an entirely inaccurate newspaper report that I had banned Fiona Bruce from wearing her cross on air. As I am generally not in favour of banning things and issuing edicts, the allegation that I had done so in this case came as something of a surprise to me.
The real story is much more mundane. At a seminar on impartiality run by the 麻豆社鈥檚 Governors, I was asked what I might do if a Muslim news reader asked to wear a headscarf on air. I honestly replied that although I wouldn鈥檛 be very happy if it distracted audiences from what she was saying, I had recently noticed Fiona wearing a cross on air. Since I had no intention of banning that, I didn鈥檛 feel I could ban the headscarf. To do either would have been a sign of partiality.
Many disagree with me on this. Some think the cross is part of British culture and therefore acceptable while the headscarf is definitely not. Others think we should ban the lot 鈥 thus fostering a secular view of the world which many would regard as taking sides against religion. You can see how tricky this may become for us.
I don鈥檛 see any sign of the passion about identity and Britishness diminishing soon. Indeed, with a certain combination of circumstances, it could all become much more heated and divisive. For 麻豆社 News, that means yet more fine judgments and challenging decisions lie ahead as we try to serve all our audiences fairly and impartially.
Roll on 2007!
Helen Boaden is director, 麻豆社 News
