We were watching the early evening news on BBC. For twenty-five minutes there was reporting of the phone-hacking scandals that seem daily to be revealed. Telephone-hacking is most unfortunate for those involved and very hurtful, of course.
There then followed a two-minute report on the disaster in East Africa where millions of people are facing starvation because of the severest drought for sixty years. People are walking for days, even weeks, without food or water, to reach refugee camps which are seriously overcrowded. On the way, the very young and the very old die. When they arrive, the smallest children still living are often very sick, many dying within hours of the end of their journey.
Has the BBC become so insular that it does not care – or even notice - what happens in the wider world? On other news channels we hear about global events far more important than the parochial and introspective happenings of the UK. Does phone hacking, deplorable and distasteful though it is, really require twenty-five minutes of in-depth reportage when tragedy is unfolding and life is unravelling for so many millions?
