THE INDEPENDENT: Hindu and Sikh leaders have accused the BBC of pandering to Britain's Muslim community by making a disproportionate number of programmes on Islam at the expense of covering other Asian religions.
A breakdown of programming from the BBC's Religion and Ethics department, seen by The Independent, reveals that since 2001, the BBC made 41 faith programmes on Islam, compared with just five on Hinduism and one on Sikhism.
Critics say the disproportionate amount of programming is part of an apparent bias within the BBC towards Islam since the attacks of 11 September 2001, which has placed an often uncomfortable media spotlight on Britain's Muslims.
Ashish Joshi, the chairman of the Network of Sikh Organisation's (NSO) media monitoring group, which obtained the numbers, said many Hindu and Sikh licence-fee payers felt cheated. "People in our communities are shocked," he said. "We are licence-fee payers and we want to know why this has happened. The bias towards Islam at the expense of Hindus and particularly Sikhs is overwhelming and appears to be a part of BBC policy." Sikhs and Hindus Accuse the BBC of Pro-Muslim Bias >>> By Jerome Taylor | September 8, 2008
THE TELEGRAPH:
BBC Favours Muslims, Complain Hindus and Sikhs: The BBC has been accused of pandering to Britain's Muslims in its religious programming and ignoring other faiths >>> By Ben Farmer | September 8, 2008
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