BBC Governors Give Green
Light to Filth & Blasphemy

Christian Voice have condemned a statement by the BBC governors which exonerates BBC2's showing of Jerry Spinger the Opera as giving the green light to filth and blasphemy.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said today: "This is a sad day for broadcasting in the United Kingdom . Whether or not Roy Keating, controller of BBC2, ever actually said he wanted to push out the barriers of taste and decency, the fact is that the Governors have now told producers that barriers of taste and decency at the BBC simply do not exist.

"Far from being convinced that the Governors have engaged in careful, reasoned consideration, I believe we hear the sound of the BBC establishment blindly closing ranks around one of their own. I am disappointed but not totally surprised by what amounts to a whitewash.

"Jerry Springer the Opera is filthy, it is pornographic and it is blasphemous. The very fact that the BBC felt it necessary to broadcast the warnings on which the majority of governors lean so heavily merely confirms it should never have been broadcast at all. The Governors are well aware that children are watching TV late at night in their bedrooms. Something like 'Springer' is not just corrupt and corrupting, it degrades us all.

"I want to pay tribute to Angela Sarkis, the lone voice of dissent from the Governors' ruling. She stood up for righteousness, and all credit to her. But the fact that she was outweighed four to one by the rest begs the question as to what the BBC Governors are actually for. If they can hold the views of ordinary people in such contempt, and give the green light to filth and blasphemy, then they appear to exist just as a rubber stamp for whatever TV bosses want to screen. The two words which Satan used to Jesus in Jerry Springer the Opera seem to sum up the attitude of the BBC Governors to Almighty God, Jesus Christ, Christians and the decent viewing public.