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’s output "too Christian" says head of religion and ethics
Posted: Tue, 17 May 2016 11:05
An internal review has found the BBC's religious output is "too Christian" and recommended an increase in its Muslim, Hindu and Sikh programming.
Aaqil Ahmed, the broadcaster's head of religion and ethics, compiled the report following consultation with non-Christians who expressed their belief that the BBC is disproportionate in its religious content.
BBC director general Lord Hall is now examining the report and could make changes to religious output.
Ibrahim Mogra, of the Muslim Council of Britain called for the BBC to televise Friday prayers from a mosque, cover Eid and show children attending madrasahs after school for Koranic instruction. But he added: "We would not wish Christians to have any less exposure."
A BBC spokesman told the London Evening Standard that the BBC was intending to do "more programming around Christianity and more on other faiths as well", adding that there was "absolutely no question of an 'either or' on our output."
Stephen Evans of the National Secular Society agreed that the BBC's religious output has "failed to reflect Britain's changing religious landscape" but said the answer was to change the nature of the programming rather than creating more "worship-based" content aimed at minority faiths.
He said: "It would be good to see the BBC focussing on cutting edge, informative and challenging programming about religion and belief, rather than broadcasting acts of worship and programming that simply evangelises for a particular religion, which is both unpopular and alienating to the vast majority of people."
In recent years the BBC has gradually reduced the hours devoted to religious broadcasting. In 2015 a BBC Trust consultation on speech radio found that religious programmes are the least liked and least well received radio shows. A TV industry report from 2013 found religion to be least popular genre of programming on TV.
NSS launches new app to bypass Thought for the Day
Posted: Fri, 1 Apr 2016 06:35
The National Secular Society will today launch a new app that will allow Radio 4 listeners to avoid Thought for the Day when listening to the BBC's Today programme.
The application will enable listeners to pre-select alternative content during the religious slot – their favourite music, a podcast or simply another radio station, which will then revert back to the Today programme when Thought for the Day is finished.
The app was developed in response to Today listeners complaining about the exclusive nature of Thought for the Day, which restricts contributions only to religious voices.
The National Secular Society has long called for the BBC to remove the bias by opening up Thought for the Day to non-religious voices or by scrapping the slot entirely.
Terry Sanderson, the National Secular Society's president, said:
"This new app lets you get on with listening to Radio 4's flagship news programme without the intrusion of Thought for the Day. I imagine that it will be very popular with a huge majority of Radio 4 listeners, both religious and non-religious, who resent tuning into a current affairs programme and suddenly finding a sermon being foisted upon them.
"Until now listeners have avoided this slot by taking the opportunity to visit the bathroom, or by drowning out the sound doing other activities, such as putting the kettle on, but now everyone can screen out unwanted religious propaganda while trying to keep up with current affairs without missing anything important."
The new app will be available to download on Android phones as well as the latest-generation Apple devices. Developers say they are already working on an update to the app that will enable users to tune out Radio 2's Pause for Thought.
