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January 12, 2009

BBC apologises for misrepresenting views on air

By sally

The BBC has apologised for editing comments made by a renowned psychologist in a radio interview, who was broadcast giving the ‘opposite’of her actual views on religion.

Dorothy Rowe complained that her comments made on depression for the BBC Radio 2 programme, What Do You Believe? broadcast on 21 October 2008 were edited to the extent that they misrepresented her views.

In an email to the corporation posted by Rowe on her website she said: “My words were edited to make it sound that I held a favourable opinion of religion in that it gave a structure to a person’s life.

“What was not broadcast was what I had said about how such structures can be damaging to people. Being misquoted in this way concerned me greatly.”

Rowe received an apology from Christine Morgan, executive producer of the BBC’s religion and ethics department. The corporation also posted an apology on the website, with Rowe’s views expressed in full.

This is the latest in a series of blunders by the BBC. In the most notorious incident in early 2007 a documentary on the Queen was edited to make it appear as if the monarch had walked out of a photo shoot. BBC 1 controller Peter Fincham resigned over the incident.

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