I Will Tell featuring Lucy Stimpson-Maynard from the album “I Look Up To The Heavens” recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson

So the last two blogs have focused on my complaint to the BBC concerning a Celebrity Master Chef episode in which Adam Pearson uttered “Jesus of Nazareth.” As I felt this unacceptable, I complained to the BBC and have been sharing the correspondence that resulted. Last week featured my reply to their initial response and this week here is their second letter to me.

Dear Mr Shearsmith,

Thank you for contacting us again. We understand you feel strongly about this.

As we previously mentioned, when looking at language that has the potential to cause offence we consider a number of factors including the nature of the programme, the time of broadcast, audience expectations for the programme, and the way in which the words are used. Programme makers are guided in this area by the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and research carried out by Ofcom who have considered this matter at some length. They concluded that words such as ‘God’ and ‘Jesus Christ’ are commonly used in place of more offensive swear words and viewers tended to regard them as ‘not offensive’ or ‘mild’ and felt their use was acceptable on TV or radio at any time. As you note ‘Muhammad’ is simply not used in the same way in everyday speech.

That said, we understand you do not approve of this language and we’re sorry for any offence or upset this caused you. We appreciate that views will differ on the use of such language but we hope we have been able to show that we do give careful consideration to the use of all language that has the potential to offend. We have again shared your views with senior members of the programme team and thanks again for taking the time to contact us. Should you wish to pursue your complaint further there are details below on how you can do this.

Kind regards

BBC Complaints

This concludes Stage 1 of our complaints process. That means we can’t correspond with you further here. If you remain unhappy, you can now contact the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU). The ECU is Stage 2 of the BBC’s complaints process. You’ll need to explain why you think there’s a potential breach of standards, or if the issue is significant and should still be investigated. Please do so within 20 working days of this reply.

Full details of how we handle complaints are available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/handle-complaint/.

I most certainly did wish to pursue my complaint and next week I will share with you what I wrote to the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit..

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