The Hindu : International : BBC's Asian Network leaves them cold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 26, 2004

International

International

BBC's Asian Network leaves them cold

By Hasan Suroor

BIRMINGHAM, NOV. 25. The BBC has invested millions of pounds in a digital radio channel dedicated exclusively to Britain's Asian community — a project which many believe sits oddly with the government's stress on ``integrating'' immigrant groups into the national mainstream.

BBC executives at the Asian Network, who briefed a group of London-based foreign correspondents, were hard put to explain how a separate community channel would promote integration.

Vijay Sharma, head of the network, was asked whether the BBC was not emphasising ``exclusion'' by providing Asians a channel outside its mainstream broadcasting? Did it not amount to putting the community in a ``box'' by feeding it the usual diet of ``bhangra'' and Bollywood song-and-dance routine? Why should taxpayers' money be used to fund a channel for one community? And would it not trigger a demand from other communities for a channel of their own?

Two non-Asian journalists in the group — a Japanese and an Albanian — wondered why Asians alone had been chosen for a special favour? And how about giving the new immigrants from Eastern Europe a similar channel?

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