A commitment by the BBC to seek comment on timber industry matters from the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) in the future has been welcomed.
The pledge follows a complaint to the BBC by the TTF following radio and television coverage about deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia in May.
In a letter to the director-general of the BBC, Greg Dyke, the TTF director-general Paul Martin said none of the programmes contained comment from the UK importing trade or the supplier countries mentioned.
And he complained that on BBC Breakfast the chief executive of the Born Free Foundation said that all non-FSC certified timber was from unsustainable sources – a comment endorsed by the presenter Jeremy Bowen.
Mr Martin said it was outrageous that the BBC made programmes about the timber industry, including false information from NGOs, without allowing the timber trade to comment and asked for reassurances regarding future broadcasting. He added that if the BBC’s reputation as an impartial broadcaster was to be upheld, it must stop being biased.
In response, the BBC’s director of news, Richard Sambrook, said the TTF’s views were not sought as the interview on BBC Breakfast was not about the timber trade but based on a much wider UN report on environment damage.
However, he added that the editor of Breakfast had given an assurance that should the programme cover the issue of logging in future it would be happy to invite TTF comments on the debate.
Commenting on the reply Mark O’Brien, the TTF’s head of public affairs, said: “Maybe it’s not surprising that the recent evidence of bias on the part of some BBC programmes has been denied but nonetheless we welcome the commitment to seek comment from us in the future.”
