Has the BBC ever been censored?

Answer 1

Yes Margret thatcher censored the beeb during the Falklands war.

Answer 2

The BBC itself often censors its own programs on tv and radio, but whether it has been censored by the government is a different matter. I'm sure the BBC often comes under pressure from the government if it is plannning to show anything that might be politically sensitive. I suppose if the government can successfully censor the BBC then we might never find out about it!

Answer 3

Besides the usual self censorship on grounds of decency or public interest in the news the only time that the BBC is censored is during wartime -- WW-1 and the Faulkland War in particular.

Answer 4

Self censorship

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2058727,00.html
http://www.libertarian.co.uk/news/nr015.htm

imposed censorship

1986: Censorship controversy
Main article: Zircon affair
In 1986 BBC journalists went on strike to protest police raids to silence a series of BBC broadcasts. The police searched both the BBC studios in Glasgow, Scotland and the London home of Duncan Campbell, an investigative journalist.

Controversy began when on June 12, 1985, Graeme McDonald as Controller of BBC-2 TV, was offered a series of documentaries by the BBC studios in Scotland in conjunction with an offer to them by Duncan Campbell whose work had previously appeared in the New Statesman magazine. The programmes were six half-hour films by Duncan Campbell (researched and presented by Campbell and produced according to BBC standards), which illuminated hidden truths of major public concern. The six programmes were:

One: The Secret Constitution about a small, secret Cabinet committee that was in reality the Establishment that ruled the United Kingdom.
Two: In Time of Crisis about secret preparations for war that began in 1982 within every NATO country. This programme revealed what Britain would do.
Three: A Gap In Our Defences about bungling defence manufacturers and incompetent military planners who have botched every new radar system that Britain has installed since World War II.
Four: We're All Data Now about the Data Protection Act.
Five: Still in production about the Association of Chief Police Officers and how Government policy and actions are determined in the fields of law and order.
Six: Still in production about communications with particular reference to satellites.
Work began on the series. In April 1986 Alan Protheroe, acting on behalf of BBC Director General Alasdair Milne was asked for permission to bug a private detective who said he could access a Criminal Records Office computer. Permission was granted and filming took place. The police were informed and the man was subsequently charged under Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act.

The sixth programme would have revealed details of a top secret spy satellite and Alisdair Milne had already decided to cut it from the line-up when the Observer newspaper broke the story on January 18, 1987 with the headline: "BBC GAG on £500M DEFENCE SECRET". Combined with this story was a report that the Home Office intended to restrict the broadcast receiver licence fee, the implication being that the Government had decided to censor BBC investigative journalism.

Soon afterwards, a series of programmes on BBC Radio Four called My Country Right or Wrong was banned by the Government because it might have revealed sensitive secrets. The series was censored only a few hours before it was due to start because it dealt with similar issues to the television series concerning the British "secret state". However, it was eventually broadcast uncut, after the Government decided that it did not breach any laws or interfere with national security

Stop Press

You know, i often wonder why, when you cut and paste a passage from an official site, knowing it to be fact, you can still get a thumbs down.

For What? you numbskull

Answer 5

I remember one programme was censored but cant remember the name of it..

Answer 6

Probably - it seems to be in bed with this awful government.

Answer 7

isn't it now? i mean surely just the selection of what they show is a way of controlling info?

Answer 8

i don't remember any particular time

Answer 9

I thought it was.