BBC faith coverage exposes its ‘intellectual arrogance’

THE BBC’S former head of religion has accused the broadcaster of “intellectual arrogance” regarding its faith coverage.

Ernie Rea, 77, who was the BBC’S Head of Religious Broadcasting from 1989 to 2001 and until earlier this year presented Beyond Belief on BBC Radio 4, claimed that the broadcaster does not cover religion and faith properly.

His comments come after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released data revealing that those who consider themselves as Christian account for less than half the population of England and Wales for the first time.

Mr Rea accused BBC bosses of not taking the topic of religion seriously, and of being “people of a secular hue”.

He said: “When you think that about 82 per cent of the population of the world cling to a faith tradition, and what an important part that faith tradition plays in the politics, the culture, the society all over the world – it’s [plain] the BBC should be covering it, should be exploring it, should be criticising it… It should be part of the of the asking questions to power, but it’s not doing it.”

Mr Rea made the comments during an interview on Roger Bolton’s Beeb Watch podcast.

He claimed that when he had meetings with the BBC controllers, he would come “out of those meetings, absolutely frustrated, not because my ideas had been turned down because they weren’t good enough, but because I hadn’t had a fair hearing”.

“The controllers of BBC television were people of a secular hue,” Mr Rea claimed.

“I can remember in the early 1990s, proposing a series on Islam in Britain.

“And the controller looked at me and he said, ‘I can’t imagine that anybody would be interested in that’. You look back on that and there’s such an intellectual arrogance about [that].

A BBC spokesman said: “As Ernie Rea says, he is talking about his experiences from over 20 years ago. Since then, the BBC has reaffirmed its commitment to religion and ethics broadcasting, [far] exceeding what we are required to do.”