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Response to the comments from the producers of the Politics Show
Although the Constituency Labour Party was invited to take part and accepted the invitation by sending two senior party members to be interviewed, at no time were we told that the programme would contain an interview with the Conservative PPC. During the second telephone conversation, Mrs Margaret Taylor informed Josh Reynolds from the Politics Show that our PPC is Cllr Junab Ali from Swindon. This information was ignored by the production team. Furthermore, during the interview both Cllr Taylor and Christine Jenkins made several references to our candidate giving his name and emphasising his excellent political record and service to the community. Every one of these comments was edited out and not included in the final broadcast, thus contributing even further to the biased nature of the programme.
Comment from the producers of the programme on this website states that as we are not currently in an election period there was no requirement to give equal exposure to all major political parties. They appear to be unaware of the BBC Editorial Guidelines stating that coverage of ‘controversial issues’ should be impartial and fair. Included in the definition of ‘controversial’ are political issues, regardless of whether or not it is in an election period.
The producers go onto to justify the lack of balance in the programme by saying that
‘Political balance and impartiality are not achieved on the basis of item by item coverage, but on the balance of our reporting across the output.’
If that is the case, in fairness to the voters of the Devizes Constituency, we look forward to a programme in the near future featuring an interview with our Labour PPC for Devizes, Cllr Junab Ali.
We also contest the implication in the statement that the Chair of the Constituency Labour Party ‘agreed to be interviewed and then withdrew’ that Ray Taylor was unwilling to be interviewed. Cllr Ray Taylor, in discussion with our senior party members, decided that a better balance would be achieved if we were represented by Cllr Margaret Taylor, as a long standing and experienced Town and former County and District Councillor and Christine Jenkins as Junab Ali’s appointed agent for the next election. |
