The BBC suspends popular TV presenter for making racist remarks against Arabs

Producer: Valarie Tan
First broadcast: 13 January 04, Radio Singapore International

BBC has suspended renowned British TV presenter, Robert Kilroy-Silk along
with his popular television talk show. Called 'Kilroy', the 17 year-old talk show was watched by more by one million Britons each day.

The suspension comes after Mr Kilroy-Silk published a controversial article in a weekly newspaper The Sunday Express. In the article, Mr Kilroy-Silk made defamatory and racist remarks against Arabs - calling them suicide bombers, limb amputators and women repressors.

His remarks have sparked off a series of debates on racism and free speech
in Britain.

So, to what extent do Kilroy-Silk's anti-Arab comments reflect the real sentiments of the British public?

Valarie Tan puts this question to Mr John Schwartz (JS), a lecturer in media at the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.

JS: I think its very clear since Sept 11, 2001. The sentiment in many western countries including Britain and US is certainly with a heighthened concern fear and anxiety about a number of issues and people in the Arab world. Therefore, there's going to always be a level of overly racist comments and sentiments being expressed. However, as soon as we start making comments on an entire group of race, we certainly make generalisation and simplicafications and open to the charge of racism. I think that's where we are at the dilemma with the BBC.

Robert Kilroy-Silk was a popular TV presenter. In our world of 'reality TV' and provocative media content, is his outrageous article another way of gaining media attention?

JS: Certainly it reflects what he thinks - he might have very strong feelings about these particular issues. But he also knows as a very seasoned media campaigner that this is the sort of stuff that particularly tabloid media outlets are very interested in doing. As soon as you get attention to your media outlet, more people are talking about your media outlet, it's great publicity. And for the next few weeks, they will be buying your newspaper and following your story. It becomes quite a scandal. And anything that has a smell of a scandal is going to be good for business for media outlets, especially those media tabloids. But there's also a reflection that he does represent some public opinion to a certain extent. I've noticed in my reading of this over the web, that a great number of
supporters have come out. And in surveys in Britain at the moment and over the past weeks, they are outraged that the BBC has taken action to suspend him.

Well, besides suspension, there's also talk that Kilroy-Silk might be charged in court with an offence under UK's Public Order Act for writing that article. Are they really right in doing that?

JS: The guy has not spoken on television. So he's not actually appearing on BBC and saying it. He actually wrote this on a newspaper article so technically it's a freedom of speech issue. He's now saying, look he didn't mean it in the way it's coming out, but certainly he has every right to express his point of view. But as a BBC employee, he like anyone else employed on Public Broadcasting and therefore paid by the taxpayer, while it's difficult to remain totally impartial it's been felt by the governers and the board that he has stepped outside the guidelines, a lot of people agree with him perhaps, but the BBC feel that they've got to stick by their charter they are going to take some action.

But it took BBC five days to suspend Kilroy-Silk after his defamatory article was published. Why the delay?

JS: It's a very bureaucratically-heavy system. And he was on a very large salary and he's on a very long contract, this man's been in television for over 17 years. And so to replace his program and put alternative programs obviously has taken some time.

How will this affect future BBC productions and publications?

JS: Its going to be as an important precedent in a sense that BBC will act firmly on matters such as this. And it's something that won't happen in the private sector. I think the private sector and the media encourage outlandish and way-out-kind of, just rattle people up and stir people up. That's the tradition of certain tabloid medium. The BBC's saying we're not part of that, we're are not going to be part of that. If someone breaches our own guideline and we think there needs to be impartiality and there hasn't been, we're going to deal with it in this way.