PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
BBC AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (3 February 2004)

That this House notes with concern the BBC's bias related to anti-religious views, particularly in relation to the Roman Catholic Church; further notes that a significant number of Catholics, mainly Orthodox, were dropped from the Thought For The Day series with no adequate explanation; further notes also a series of attacks on Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, in which the Today programme persistently highlighted a child abuse case which police had rejected; further notes the Panorama programme, 'Sex and the Holy City', attacking the Pope and accusing him of causing the deaths of HIV patients throughout the world because he rejected the sheath as protection against the spread of this disease; regrets that the programme producers failed to report on research showing that the distribution of free condoms has failed to halt the rise in HIV; further notes that they also failed to refer to Uganda, where all sex education programmes promote 'abstinence and faithfulness', which has been followed by a 75 per cent. decline in HIV rates among 15 to 19-year-olds, making it the leading country in successfully reducing the AIDS pandemic; and calls on the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to urge the Governors of the BBC to ensure that any new Director General pursues a policy resulting in thorough research on all matters of public policy and not simply to produce propaganda programmes to promote their own views.

Sponsored by:
Sir David Amess (Conservative)