Broadening the definition of "neutrality"

THE BBC has been accused of “going soft” on the BNP by delaying the broadcast of a documentary until after next month’s European Parliament election.

Last week, the Western Mail revealed how one of the key figures involved in organising the distribution of 29 million BNP election leaflets across Britain from a warehouse in Welshpool was Arthur Kemp, a racial ideologue from South Africa.

The forthcoming BBC Wales programme is understood to focus on Mr Kemp.

His book, March of the Titans: A History of the White Race, praises the Nazi regime for taking action to ensure Germany’s economic recovery, and on the Holocaust states “certainly far fewer died that what is most often claimed”.

The BBC says the programme is still in production and wouldn't be reday to be broadcast prior to June 4, whilst the "Western Mail understands that at one point there had been a possibility of broadcasting the programme before the June 4 election and that one of the considerations involved in making a decision is not related to the legal requirement for broadcasters to be neutral during periods running up to an election."

That legal requirement for broadcasters to remain neutral is an interesting point at the minute; technically then should the BBC have broadcast the various stories connected with the expenses' scandals during an election campaign? The fact that it looks like all (or let's say "most", we don't know for sure what tomorrow's revelations will bring...)the parties have been involved to some extent or other will, I'm sure, be giving an extra boost to the minor parties' campaigns- minor parties like the BNP. But of course, they should broadcast such information, not only is it in the public's interest, more importantly it's freely available in the public domain. And if information, which is in the public interest, held about a party or its candidates comes to light during the run up to an election, do we expect the tv channnels (unlike the newspapers and obviously the various internet outlets) to keep stum? Again, I'd say most definitely not.