Exclusive: BBC declined Government request to show signed Coronavirus briefings on BBC One

The BBC refused a request from Government officials to broadcast the daily coronavirus briefings on BBC One with a British Sign Language interpreter, The Limping Chicken can reveal.

In email correspondence released under the Freedom of Information Act, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Alastair Jones told the BBC he was “keen to explore what might be possible.”

In an email dated 6 May, Jones wrote: “Do you know whether the BBC might be able to run the interpreter on BBC 1, not just news channel and iPlayer [sic], given its wider reach?”

In his response, Paul Oldfield, Controller of Policy at the BBC, said:

“Our position remains that signing is available on the news channel and iPlayer. We’ve now added a ticker to the BBC One coverage every afternoon making clear that if you need signing then that is available on News Channel [sic].”

The remarks echo a previous statement issued to The Limping Chicken in May, in which a BBC spokesperson said they had no plans to extend their sign language provision to BBC One.

The BBC were approached today for further comment following the release of the emails, but replied saying they had “no further comment to make.” Their email noted that the briefings are no longer taking place on a daily basis.

Calls for the daily briefings to include sign language interpretation on BBC One came at the height of lockdown, with the online #WhereIsTheInterpreter campaign being launched by Lynn Stewart-Taylor and the British Deaf Association (BDA) writing to the Prime Minister about the issue.

The BDA’s letter reads: “[We request that] the existing provision of sign language interpretations of the UK Government’s news briefings, which can be seen live on BBC News 24, is also broadcast live on BBC1, as this will reach far more Deaf people.”

Meanwhile, the #WhereIsTheInterpreter campaign called for a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter to interpret in the room where the briefings take place, as seen in Scotland and many other countries, which would have made all broadcasts accessible by default.

The emails from the DCMS and the BBC, sent in April and May this year, were sent after a Parliamentary petition about BSL interpreters for emergency announcements reached 10,000 signatures.

The milestone was surpassed in March and required the Government to issue a response, in which they said they cannot “safely include a BSL interpreter” in the room “without potentially putting them and others at risk”.

When presented with the emails, Lynn Stewart-Taylor, the Deaf campaigner behind the #WhereIsTheInterpreter campaign, expressed disappointment at the news.

“What are the actual reasons for them saying ‘no’? That’s not good enough! We don’t want to argue and fight for this, but we have no choice. We want to protect our families, our children, our friends, our community and the NHS. We are simply asking to move to BBC One – surely this is not an extra cost,” she said.

The release of the correspondence between the BBC and the DCMS comes after Peterborough MP Paul Bristow described the Government’s failure to provide its own BSL interpreter as a “missed opportunity”.

Speaking to the Cambridgeshire Deaf Association, the Parliamentary champion for the Conservative Disability Group said: “I think through the best of intentions, there was a push to try and make this a responsibility of the BBC, but that’s not good enough. It should have been owned by Number 10 during this process.

“It’s an assumption that all deaf people or those who need BSL are going to receive their information through the BBC. There are other channels out there that people may be watching or may be viewing.

“To try and make this the responsibility of the broadcasters was a mistake.”

The full interview with Mr Bristow is available to view on the Cambridgeshire Deaf Association’s Facebook page.

Photo: GOV.UK

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.

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Update: Lynn Stewart-Taylor, founder of the Where Is The Interpreter campaign, has asked supporters to write to their MP about the October daily briefings.

The new action comes ahead of the Government launching the new, White House-style press conferences later this year.

#WhereIsTheInterpreter WE NEED YOU! pic.twitter.com/4V7bLeNgS6

— Lynn Stewart-Taylor (@jerseysnail) August 25, 2020

In a video on social video, Lynn said individuals, allies and organisations can help by contacting their local representative.

“Please write to them and remind them about having an in-person interpreter in October,” she said.

Lynn later went on to add that a template letter will be made available for others to use soon.