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
Win £250 – just write an uplifting Secular Thought for the Day
Posted: Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:13
The ongoing irritation at the BBC's exclusion of secular voices from The Thought for the Day slot has spurred one the NSS's previous presidents, David Tribe, to sponsor a prize of £250 for the best secular Thought for the Day.
To win the prize, we are looking for a short essay in a similar format to the BBC's religious slot.
Thought for the Day is supposed to be an 'uplifting' reflection on a topical issue from a religious point of view.
To be in with a chance, your secular Thought should be between 450 - 650 words and be positive in approach and ideally related to a topical matter. We are not looking for a humanist Thought or an atheist Thought, but specifically for a secular Thought. We suggest you look at the NSS's Secular Charter for some ideas.
So, let's have some great (secular) Thoughts for the Day and good luck!
Send your Secular Thought for the Day to admin@secularism.org.uk or by post to NSS, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Entries that require a great deal of correction or editing are unlikely to win the prize, so please let us have copy that is clean and finalised to your satisfaction. Please submit entries by Monday 18 March.
Religion to lose broadcasting perk in Netherlands
Posted: Wed, 2 Jan 2013 09:20
The announcement by Dutch Culture Minister Sander Dekker that the government's plans to overhaul the way public broadcasting in the Netherlands is funded, includes withdrawing subsidies for religious broadcasting, has infuriated the Catholic Church. At present religious groups are given £13 million a year to produce propaganda programmes, but this will end in 2016.
At present, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and humanists all have airtime on Dutch television, proportionate to their size. The Catholic broadcasting includes Sunday Masses, news features and a popular dating programme, "Farmer Seeks a Wife". The minister's letter said "small faith and philosophy broadcasters" would no longer be eligible for subsidies, a decision that would affect the Jewish broadcaster, the Roman-Catholic network and possibly a few others.
The Catholic bishop of Roermond, Frans Wiertz, was fizzing with fury at the prospect of losing this lucrative perk. "Religion is private – that's a view we've heard more and more in recent years. The current cabinet is now trying to put this view into action."
He said the broadcasters are "part of a society that in part no longer understands them … this is a pathetic and risky path".
In an editorial, the Protestant daily Trouw said the decision showed that the free-market VVD party, that is in a coalition with the Social Democrats, wanted to stress "the principle of Church-State separation that has become popular in the VVD, but with more totalitarian than liberal overtones".
Jewish broadcasters were also outraged that the hundreds of thousands of euros of public money given to them to run a broadcasting station would be withdrawn, possibly resulting in the closure of its services.
Christian networks may be able register with the government as corporations, which would allow them to charge membership fees and apply for separate arts and culture subsidies, the Jewish station, however, may lack the necessary 50,000 members to do so (given that there are only an estimated 40,000 Jews in the whole country this is highly likely).
