Complaining to the BBC

You know you’re getting old when you start complaining to the BBC about things. I’d like to think I’m not getting that old yet, but even so, this dreadful article made me do this:

I wish to make a formal complaint about this article regarding the tragic death of Khyra Ishaq.

Despite the fact that Ishaq was NOT electively home educated, but simply removed from school (technically a truant) for the vast majority of the period in question, you have for some reason chosen to devote a large portion of the article to providing a platform for the discredited Graham Badman to attempt to link this case to his shoddy review of home education.

Home education is entirely irrelevant to this case. The measures the Government hopes to put in place regarding home education following Badman’s recommendations would not have affected the outcome here. You say in the article that Badman says “children could still be ‘hidden’ from the system. ” The children involved in this case, the majority of whom were attending school anyway, were not hidden from the system at all. They were known to be at risk by several parties, all of whom failed to act.

By allowing Graham Badman (and indirectly the Government) to use this tragic case to make unrelated points about legislation which is currently being fiercely contested in parliament, you have shown the BBC, or at least the writer of the piece, to be biased and not impartial.

In relation to this, I specifically draw your attention to section 5.13 of the broadcasting code, which reads “Broadcasters should not give undue prominence to the views and opinions of particular persons or bodies on matters of political or industrial controversy and matters relating to current public policy in all the programmes included in any service (listed above) taken as a whole.”

I suggest that this is exactly what has happened here.

Update: For some real insight into this issue, try reading Gerald Warner or Renegade Parent.