BBC Question Time producer rebuked for sharing Britain First post

While some newspapers have been covering the inclusion of an “associate of Anjem Choudary” in the BBC’s new show ‘Muslims Like Us’ (see The Guardian and London Evening Standard) Sebastian Shakespeare at the Daily Mail draws attention to other goings on at the BBC that have attracted rather less moralistic media scrutiny.

Shakespeare writes that Alison Fuller Pedley, an ‘audience producer’ of the flagship BBC show Question Time, has been found to be “a member of the British Patriotic Front Facebook group and shared an online post by Britain First”.

Britain First is the far right party behind “mosque invasions”, “Christian patrols” and whose deputy leader, Jayda Fransen, was recently convicted of religiously aggravated harassment following an Islamophobic outburst at a veil wearing Muslim woman during the far right movement’s protest in Luton.

The group has been banned from entering parts of Luton and any mosque in England and Wales for 3 years, after Bedfordshire Police secured a High Court order against the group.

Shakespeare notes that Ms Fuller Pedley shared “an innocent-looking image of British servicemen on parade, with the slogan: ‘Like and share if you are proud of our Forces”.”

He further notes that she “invited members of the extremist English Defence League, a street protest movement which focuses on opposition to what it considers to be a spread of Islamism and Sharia in the UK, to join the Question Time audience.”

The BBC confirmed bosses at Question Time had spoken to Ms Fuller Pedley about her online activities, according to the Daily Mail.

“The BBC has clear impartiality guidelines covering the use of personal social media.

“This freelance producer and the rest of the programme team have been reminded of their responsibilities,” a spokesperson told the paper.

Interesting isn’t it, that the presence of an Anjem Choudary “associate” in a reality-TV style programme where his views are challenged by fellow Muslims garners attention about giving ‘extremists’ the oxygen of publicity, but details about a BBC ‘audience producer’ sharing a Britain First post and inviting EDL members into a Question Time audience is relegated to a society column?