Ofcom re NFU on BBC "Farming Today"

[james armstrong]

Sent this off , and await DG'sreply with interest: 

Director General                        

Ofcom

2a Southwark Bridge Road,     London SE1
  9HA                                          2 May 2012 

 

Dear Director General,                                                                                                                                                        
     allegation of  undeclared conflict of interest  BBC Farming Today and National Farmers Union.   
 I have not
had a reply to my letter of 15th March to    Ms Gwyneth Williams, Controller of BBC
Radio Four re the above allegations.  A
copy of my letter is enclosed.

The allegations are 1  that BBC give undue airtime  to NFU ,

2 That NFU influence the agenda
and the content of Farming Today programmes 

3 That the personal interest of
the NFU  interviewees is not  declared and the  lobbying agenda is  not 
revealed  by FT interviewers.  

4 That CAP payments which are  reported to 
form  a substantial proportion of
farm incomes in UK
 are not systematically explained by
Farming Today during their daily broadcasts . 
A Eurobarometer poll found only 15% of UK
people had heard of CAP and thought they knew what it was.  This after some thirty odd years of  the operation of CAP in this country  and over 300 
FT broadcasts  p.a., some
admittedly of short duration,    

I have over the years drawn
this to the attention of Farming Today and the 
(claimed undue ) influence of NFU continues. 

Things you should know.                                                                                                                                                                     a)
 Fran Barnes Producer at FT has now
joined NFU . (15March)           b)    
NFU members pocket a staggering £1billion*  as CAP payments each year. Which  is never revealed on air.   c) NFU is not a trades Union but a
£multi million company with  huge
commercial interests .It does not represent the 150,000 agricultural workers. 

*This figure is my estimate and
FT are invited to ask NFU to  supply the correct
figure, and to reveal it to listeners.   Whatever
the amount is , you will see that the potential 
for corruption  and the  pressure on NFU to  defend their 
members’ interest is huge- Yet this is not made clear to Listeners. 

In the past my query,  How many appearances NFU make on FT?  is  unanswered by FT.   

I  enclose a leaflet  describing the background to CAP 

and hope you will address the
issues raised. 
Yours faithfully,    James Armstrong       Dorchester 


 		 	   		  
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