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Bishops challenge BBC Radio on lack of religious content

A Church of England and a Roman Catholic Bishop have called on the BBC to include religion on Radio 1, describing the omission as the 'most striking exclusion of religion from the BBC 's output'.

The bishops say that the BBC Trust, which now governs the BBC, sometimes includes religion under its duty to 'Reflect the nations, regions and communities of the UK’ and sometimes does not.

"Religion figures strongly in the output of Radio 2, 3, and 4 under the proposed licences for individual BBC services, but it does not appear under Radio 1," said the Bishop of Manchester the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, Senior Church of England spokesman on Communications, and Bishop John Arnold, Chair of the Strategic Communications Board, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

They raise this and other issues in their response to the BBC Trust's consultation on its service licences and purpose remits which will help the trust to govern BBC output.

The bishops argue that the exclusion of religion from Radio 1 is illogical and inconsistent, particularly in the light of results for a recent survey by Tearfund which found that Radio 1's young target audience has a greater thirst for spiritual input than older age groups. Church of England cathedrals also attract a growing number of 16 to 24-year-olds, according to recent Church of England figures.

Full story at Christian Today.