According to today's
Times:-
The BBC is facing a High Court challenge over its decision to censor a party political broadcast in the run-up to Thursday’s local elections.
A Christian party has begun legal action after the corporation insisted on changes to a short film in which the party voiced opposition to the building of Europe’s biggest mosque next to the site of the 2012 Olympics.
The Christian Choice election broadcast would have described Tablighi Jamaat [the organization behind the £75 million development] as "a separatist Islamic group” before welcoming that some “moderate Muslims” were opposed to the mosque complex.
Reportedly, the court action comes after lawyers at the BBC and ITV forced Christian Choice to change the broadcast's words and meaning:-
The BBC refused to accept “separatist” — the corporation asked for “controversial” instead — and barred the use of “moderate Muslims” because the phrase implied that Tablighi Jamaat was less than moderate.
ITV went a step farther, demanding that the adjective “controversial” be used merely to describe the planned mosque and not the group itself.
What's going on? This is not what normally happens with party political broadcasts, is it?
