A campaign has been launched to guard religious programmes from potential cuts in a recent Media Bill going through Parliament.
The Sandford St Martin Trust has published its #BeliefMatters petition – timed to coincide with the passage of the federal government’s Media Bill to the House of Lords – and has encouraged anyone concerned concerning the threat to spiritual broadcasting to sign it.
The petition raises the alarm about how proposed changes to existing broadcasting laws threaten the longer term of spiritual broadcasting and can negatively affect religious literacy within the UK.
Anna McNamee, Executive Director of the Sandford St Martin Trust, said: “Recent events around the globe show how necessary religious literacy is. But in its current form, the Media Bill will put this core cultural and civic competency in danger.
“If it’s passed in its current form, public service broadcasters will now not be obliged to offer audiences with a spread of programming which incorporates ‘education, sport, science, religion and other beliefs, social issues, matters of international significance or interest’.
“Instead, they’ll only need to offer ‘an appropriate range of genres’ without saying what’s ‘appropriate’ or what constitutes ‘a spread’.”
The long-established Trust – that has made highly-prized awards for the most effective in religious broadcasting since 1978 – believes that “broadcasting is a key tool for promoting the higher understanding of how religion shapes and is formed by politics, social movements and culture.”
It is asking for any recent laws to “clearly protect the longer term quantity and quality of spiritual programming.”
According to the published regulator Ofcom there was a steep decline in religious broadcasting within the UK over the past decade, as highlighted by the Religion Media Centre.
Between 2013 and 2022 the entire amount of ‘Religion & Ethics’ programming broadcast across the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV dropped dramatically from 254 hours to 140 hours per 12 months. By 2022 Channel 4, ITV and Channel 5 weren’t broadcasting any Religion and Ethics programming in any respect.
McNamee added: “The Sandford St Martin Trust has long argued that to disregard religion is to go away a gaping hole at the center of public service broadcasting. We hope anyone who, like us, values religious literacy and believes broadcasters should support this through their programming, will sign and share the #BeliefMatters petition.”
The campaign comes because the BBC faces continued criticism for significantly reducing local radio broadcasting, including its weekly Sunday morning faith programmes.
Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK, and a former communications director with the CofE.
