As the BBC Apologise to the Provos Allister Reminds Them He's Still Waiting
Following the BBC’s apology to Sinn Fein/IRA about their coverage of the European election count TUV leader Jim Allister has asked when the corporation will be apologising to Traditional Unionists for discriminating against the party.
Mr Allister said:
“Before the European election a delegation from TUV met with broadcasters including the BBC to discuss their plans for coverage of the campaign. We made the point that I, as a sitting MEP – indeed the MEP who topped the poll in 2004 – was entitled to equality of treatment when it came to air time and party election broadcasts.
“We also said that although the party had only contested one by-election since its formation Dromore was very representative of Northern Ireland as a whole, containing as it does a mixture of urban and rural, different social groups, etc. In Dromore we obtained almost 30% of the Unionist vote. This, as we told the BBC, would equate to around 13% of the total vote Province wide. The election results – where we obtained almost 30% of the Unionist vote and almost 14% of the total poll – proved the accuracy of our claims.
“However, the BBC – and UTV for that matter as well – in their wisdom decided that TUV should be given the same amount of coverage as the Green Party and less than Alliance. TUV outpolled the Greens by more than 4 to 1. We outpolled Alliance by almost 2 and a half to one.
“Yet we have not yet received an apology from the BBC for their disgraceful discrimination against our party and, by extension, the 1/3 of the Unionist community who we represent.
“How different the BBC’s treatment of Sinn Fein/IRA! Gareth Gordon did us all a service when he spoke over the Irish section of Bairbre Brown’s speech but the corporation saw fit to say sorry for denying her a few moments of airtime to speak in a language no one understood anyway.
“The question now is when will they apologise for their totally inappropriate treatment of TUV in the run up to the election campaign? Failure to do so will suggest that there is one rule for Republicans and another for Unionists”.
