Thought for the Day explicitly excludes non-religious contributors.
The BBC should move away from biased religious programming. That should begin with a rethink of Thought for the Day.
The BBC has a long history of pro-religion bias in its output, which is typified by Thought for the Day.
Thought for the Day is a daily slot on BBC Radio 4's flagship news programme, Today. For nearly three minutes, religious leaders offer "reflections from a faith perspective on issues and people in the news". Nonreligious people and leaders of less popular religions, no matter how well-respected their views, are not allowed to contribute.
Despite being within such a prominent discussion slot, Thought for the Day is outside the programme's editorial control. This means there is no right to reply when the slot is used for political or religious proselytising.
- Fewer than one in five British people think BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day should exclusively feature religious content.
- Religious radio programmes are the least popular and least well received according to the BBC's own research.
Public apathy towards Thought for the Day is even shared by Today's former presenter, John Humphrys, who described the slot as "inappropriate" and "deeply, deeply boring" in 2017. His colleague Justin Webb has also criticised it.
Reforming Thought for the Day to include speakers of any religion or belief would improve overall quality, make it relevant to Today's audience and remove the unjustifiable discrimination. Contributors should be picked without reference to their religious or non-religious identity.
There is a place for high quality, critical religion and belief programming on the BBC – but not one-sided promotion of religion.
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Latest updates
BBC Trust rejects Thought for the Day bias complaint
Posted: Wed, 2 Oct 2013 11:10
The BBC Trust has rejected a complaint of bias from the National Secular Society concerning a Thought for the Day slot broadcast immediately after its successful High Court challenge to prayers during council meetings.
The slot, broadcast on 14 February 2012 and delivered by the crossbench peer Lord Singh, portrayed the legal action as an attempt to impose secularist "beliefs and prejudices on others". The ruling and subsequent response from senior Government figures and political commentators made the subject matter a highly topical and controversial issue.
The NSS complaint argued that the three-minute broadcast was used to deliver biased commentary on a topical political controversy, without any right to reply or attempt to provide due impartiality.
Following a previous challenge to Thought for the Day from the NSS In 2009, the BBC said: "Whilst it may be acceptable for Thought for the Day contributors to reflect on topical issues, where a position is given on a controversial subject then it is probable that due impartiality will require that an appropriate balance is achieved."
Rejecting the latest complaint, the BBC Trust conceded that Lord Singh's broadcast dealt with a controversial subject, but refuted the claim of bias, saying it was satisfied that across BBC output a wide range of significant views and perspectives had been given to the subject of the High Court ruling.
The Trust claimed the Today Programme in which the slot had been broadcast fulfilled the impartiality requirements by featuring an extensive discussion with Richard Dawkins and an interview with the Minister for Faith and Communities, Baroness Warsi.
Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns manager, said: "The idea that the inclusion of a notable atheist speaking on an entirely different subject matter, and an interview with Baroness Warsi, where she warned of the 'marginalisation of religion' somehow fulfilled the show's impartiality requirements is absurd.
"Lord Singh was permitted to use the slot to attack as 'intolerant', a legal challenge that successfully sought to establish that council meetings should be conducted in a manner equally welcoming to all councillors, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack of belief.
"The Trust's decision and reasoning demonstrates that it simply fails to understand, or refuses to acknowledge, the inequity that occurs by including an exclusively religious slot as part of Radio 4's flagship news programme. By allowing religious views — some of which can be considered as political opinion — to pass unchallenged, the BBC is betraying its supposed core values of fairness and balance.
"The BBCs blind spot concerning religion bias is bringing the institution into disrepute. It's about time the BBC recognised Thought for the Day as the discriminatory and anachronistic religious privilege that it is."
Earlier this year The BBC Trust prevented its own impartiality adviser from formally recommending that secular speakers be allowed on Radio 4's Thought for the Day.
BBC reduces the amount of religion it broadcasts
Posted: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 12:41
The BBC has published its annual report which shows that the amount of time devoted to religion on the various BBC platforms has reduced over the past year.
In the 2012/2013 period BBC1 broadcast 99 hours of religion as opposed to 102 hours in the previous year. The only channel to show a rise in the number of hours of religious broadcasting was BBC2 which went up from 27 hours in the 2011/2012 period to 47 hours in the latest period.
BBC4 showed a significant drop from 53 hours last year to only 5 hours this year.
On BBC Radio the number of hours devoted to religion went down from 1,211 last year to 975 hours this year.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: "It is good that the BBC is taking notice of its audiences at last — who according to its own research don't regard religion as an important genre and hardly ever watch it. This small reduction in hours is welcome, but it still represents an awful lot of religion."
Mr Sanderson said that it wasn't clear whether the BBC's figures included such things as the church service for Margaret Thatcher's funeral (which was broadcast in full) or the service of thanksgiving for the anniversary of the Queen's coronation. These appear to be extra to the official religious figures in the annual report.
Mr Sanderson said he welcomed a more imaginative approach to religion and a more critical examination of it. "It is impossible to ignore the part that religion is negative."
