BBC 'should tailor shows for humanists'

A Labour peer has called on the BBC to create "a new set of cultural and intellectual programmes tailored to humanists". Skip related content

Lord Harrison moved a short debate in the House of Lords yesterday on whether the broadcaster has paid sufficient regard to reflecting humanism in its programmes.

He argued that humanism and humanists were not sufficiently represented by current BBC scheduling and argued for greater representation on religious and non-religious programmes of the humanist tradition.

"The BBC can and should provide a platform for these searching debates," he told the House.

"According to the Social Trends 2006 survey, 46 per cent of us are non-religious. However, we remain a community disregarded."

He said that by not representing humanism adequately, the BBC were implying that humanists are "bereft of a moral compass; or worse, that we are amoral or immoral. It implies that we have no way of commenting sensibly on contemporary events."

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston (Lab) pointed out that the BBC Trust had set up a committee to examine the issue.

"A standing conference on religion and belief, on which a humanist now sits alongside a dozen or so other representatives of major religions," he said.

Environment minister Lord Davies of Oldham concluded the debate.

"It is not the government's responsibility to make any diktat on programmes," he said.

"The BBC certainly has an obligation to listen, so I would be more than a little surprised if members of the Trust did not listen carefully to this debate."

Stakeholder Response: British Humanist Association

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has echoed the Government's response to a debate in the House of Lords last night on the BBC, Humanism, and Thought for the Day, saying that it 'hopes the BBC has been listening'. The debate, called by Lord Harrison, and in which a number of peers declared their interest as 'Happy Humanists', took place on the eve of the BBC Trust's deliberations on whether to allow non-religious contributors to the Today programme's Thought for the Day.

Andrew Copson, BHA Director of Education and Public Affairs, said, 'In a welcome break with past policy, humanists are now represented alongside religions in the new body liaising with the BBC on matters of common concern the Standing Conference on Religion and Belief. While this change is significant in principle, in practice the BBC continues to discriminate against humanists and Humanism in its broadcasting. In speeches in last night's debate, the extent to which humanism is ignored by the BBC was laid out not one programme by humanists for humanists, not a single humanist contributor to Thought for the Day.

Mr Copson continued, 'As the BBC Trustees deliberate today on these matters, I hope they have been listening not only to the serious arguments put forward in the debate, but also to the thousands of people who have contacted them calling for inclusion of humanists and Humanism in BBC broadcasting.'