BBC Open to Veiled Presenters
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"The key is, if it does not hamper our primary obligation to deliver the news and information to our viewers and listeners then we would be respectful of that," said Byford. |
Islamonline.net — Amid a heated anti-hijab debate in the West, the BBC, the largest broadcasting corporation in the world, said it does not object to have news presenters wearing head covers, refuting accusations of being too sensitive to the feelings of Muslims viewers.
"The key is, if it does not hamper our primary obligation to deliver the news and information to our viewers and listeners then we would be respectful of that," Mark Byford, the BBC Deputy Director-General told The Daily Telegraph on Sunday, October 29.
Byford, who has overall responsibility for the corporation's news division, said their job is to effectively communicate to the audience the information they are delivering.
"As far as the issue of dress is concerned, it must not get in the way of the audience being able to receive the information in a clear and effective manner."
The BBC official stressed the case would be different with face-covers.
"If the face is covered completely by the veil, then that is a different issue to something else."
Many well-qualified British Muslim women are suffering job discrimination and "ethnic penalties" merely because of the way they dress, according to a study by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).
It said that 90% of Pakistani and Bangladeshi-origin women were getting lower pay and suffering higher rates of unemployment.
Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.
As for the face veil, the majority of Muslim scholars believe that a woman is not obliged to cover her face or hands.
Scholars, however, believe that it is up to women to decide whether to take on the veil.
Professionalism
The senior BBC executive brushed off accusations of bias towards Islam.
"Do I believe that the BBC favors Islam compared to Christianity? Absolutely not," he said.
"We absolutely recognize that the BBC has to reflect all faiths which are relevant within the UK."
A week ago some of the BBC staff accused the corporation of going too far in the pursuit of multiculturalism.
They said the BBC has an abnormally large number of young employees of ethnic minorities.
"I do not accept that the BBC is crammed full of soft liberals," said Byford.
He also ruled out that the BBC was over-represented with people from ethnic minority communities.
"It is simply not true to say we are."
Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of around 1.8 million.
The BBC executive also defended a recent interview with a Taliban spokesman, noting that it was a matter of pure professionalism.
"I thought it was an outstanding piece of work and I back it 100 per cent. It was very responsibly done," he stressed.
"It does the audience a disservice if we say that there are British troops fighting under a great deal of pressure but then we don't explain why the other side is fighting them."