Tim McGarry.
The BBC Northern Ireland documentary “Discrimination: They Think It’s All Over” has been slammed by East Derry MP Gregory Campbell as “abysmal.”
Mr Campbell, the DUP’s spokesperson on media and sport, said he would be raising his complaints “directly” with the Controller of BBC NI.
In the documentary, screened on Wednesday night last, comedian Tim McGarry – best known as a member of The Hole in the Wall Gang comic group – told the story of Fair Employment in Northern Ireland and revealed he used to be a lawyer for the newly formed Fair Employment Commission (FEC).
Mr Campbell, who had been asked to take part in the programme, said the issue of fair employment in Northern Ireland was, and remained, an “emotive and controversial” one and it deserved to have been examined “thoroughly and fairly.”
He added: “Unfortunately, this was not the case.
“Mr McGarry, the presenter, worked for a predecessor body of the Equality Commission , as did Michael McDowell, one of the other people behind the production, who also appeared in the programme.
“The result was an appalling vista, a partisan and atrocious piece of television.
“Would a documentary on any other sensitive subject be produced by individuals so clearly identified with one particular side of the argument, and with no attempt to challenge their own obvious and partisan point of view?
Gregory Campbell.
“This standpoint was demonstrated in the production whereby those individuals with a relatively ‘favourable’ point of view were all offered a ‘sit-down’ interview which ran to some considerable length.
“This was pointedly not offered to the two voices which raised a number of critical points, including myself.
“Instead, I was given a short interview standing at the side of the Great Hall in Stormont.
“Similarly, the two main voices from a republican background were offered the opportunity to highlight personal accounts of how they were discriminated against because of their religion or political beliefs.
“Again, no such offer was made to myself, nor was anyone else filmed specifically recording their own direct experience of being discriminated against because they were Protestant.
“For a programme which focused on legislation relating to fair employment it was remarkable that the only time discrimination on religious grounds has ever been legislated on in the history of Northern Ireland only merited a few seconds in one of my own contributions, in the last five minutes of the programme.
“The institutionalised sectarianism and discrimination of the Police 50:50 recruitment was the only time that discrimination had a basis in law, and it meant that many well qualified Protestants and other non-Catholics were denied employment.
“There was also no mention of the fact that the Fair Employment and Treatment Order has an exemption for teachers in Northern Ireland, and of course this disadvantages Protestant teachers regarding employment opportunities in State funded Roman Catholic Schools.
“Perhaps this particular piece of discrimination and the case of 50:50 Police recruitment were not seen as being important to those behind this programme.
“However, fairness and impartiality were discarded, the BBC need to understand why they are regarded by many in the Unionist community as the Biased Broadcasting Corporation.”
Mr Campbell concluded: “I am taking this issue up with the BBC NI Controller. Even by the standards of BBC NI this was an abysmal and utterly third rate programme.”
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