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BBC: Humanism

My Lords, I, too, congratulate my noble friend Lord Harrison on initiating this overdue debate about the BBC’s duty under the Communications Act 2003 to make programmes about religion and "other beliefs". I declare an interest as chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, which, as we have heard, is increasingly frustrated at the time being taken by the BBC to put more about those "other beliefs" on screen alongside religion. However, the BBC Trust has now set up a committee to examine the issue further, and the trust chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, promises that the committee, ""won’t just be looking at Thought for the Day: they will be looking at the way the BBC serves the interests of citizens who are humanists, and have no faith"." So, seven years on from the Communications Act, we can now anticipate that proper coverage of those "other beliefs" will be consolidated on BBC screens in 2010. I also thank the BBC for setting up a standing conference on religion and belief, on which a humanist now sits alongside a dozen or so other representatives of major religions. The Director-General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, will be an ex officio member of the conference. The other ex officio member will be the new head of BBC religion and ethics, Aaqil Ahmed, and I welcome him to his new post. Mr Ahmed has an impressive record from his years as commissioner for religion and head of multi-cultural programming at Channel 4. It was therefore disappointing to read that Protestants in Ulster, and even the Church of England, had expressed concerns about the appointment of Mr Ahmed, a Muslim, to his BBC post. I assure those critics that, in my experience, television executives in such roles are professionals who understand concepts of fairness and impartiality and who will spend much of their working lives communicating ideas and information with which they might not agree if that is what public service broadcasting requires. I speak as a non-believer who was responsible as executive producer for factual programming, including religious output, at both Granada and Scottish Television. My humanist friend, the noble Lord, Lord Birt, will no doubt have had the same experience at London Weekend Television and the BBC. I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Birt, would also agree that the clerics who sat on our formal ITV religious advisory committees were tolerant, wise and broad-minded in the support that they gave us for producing our religious programmes, which were often rather good. My confession is that we godless producers helped to fill the pews with our electronic proselytising—more than can be said, I suspect, for "Thought for the Day". With all due respect to the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, I caution my fellow humanists not to strive too officiously for slots on "Thought for the Day" unless they are convinced that banality is not contagious. It is worth noting in closing that the BBC’s review of its current religious and ethical output, circulated to noble Lords to inform this debate, suggests that more attention is already being given to other beliefs. I look forward to auditing the BBC’s output in the year ahead and revisiting this important issue with noble Lords in a future debate.