Idiot’s Guide To Navigating BBC Complaints
June 17, 2008 14:33 by BackSpin Editor
We’ve heard from quite a few readers in recent days that the BBC Complaints website is difficult to navigate and not the most user-friendly process. Unfortunately, the Beeb discontinued direct e-mails sometime ago.
Nonetheless, here are a few simple steps to navigating your way through the BBC Complaints process:
1. Go to the BBC Complaints site – http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints – and select “Make a complaint”, located on the left of the screen.
2. Select the “make a complaint” option and click Next and then select the type of BBC content you wish to complain about (TV, radio or website). Click Next.
3. Depending on the type of content, enter either the web address or the name and date of transmission. (Articles on the BBC’s web site include the date.) Enter your feedback, remembering to be courteous and ask for a reply. Click Next.
4. Fill in your personal details. Contrary to popular misconception, you do not have to be a UK resident to make a complaint. Simply fill in your name, e-mail address and country of residence and click Next.
5. You will then be given the option of reviewing your complaint before submitting it to the BBC.
Click here for more information on how the BBC reviews its complaints. While it may be slightly more complicated than a simple e-mail, please make that extra effort to hold the BBC to account. Coverage of the Mideast is only one area where the publicly-funded BBC has been held up to scrutiny; we cannot afford to relinquish the pressure.
neufeld thomas md
10:58 pm
Jan 22, 2009
BBC was a source of hope and truth for people opressed and killed in WWarII
Now shame on you -you became an antisemitic propaganda machine!!
Comparing Israel with Ruanda is that fair reporting???
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
6 
0
Boaz Sachs
1:15 am
Jan 23, 2009
I am concerned that the BBC continues to report inconsistently and in biased fashion over the Israel Palestine situation. I am equally also distressed by the (excessive) killing of innocent civilians in Gaza during this operation but I find that words like “massacred” are being bandied about too early. The final death toll (like all things Hamas) is unreliable and a significant number of those killed were actually terrorists aiming to maim and kill as many people as possible themselves. I am surprised you have not referenced the Corriere Della Sera report that these numbers were inflated and that the people involved were fighters. I do stress that Israel should act more responsibly avoiding flexing its military muscle so significantly but I think they (the Israeli people) would feel less hounded if there was a sense that the western media and Western people would notice Hamas’ dirty tactics and condemn them fully for their non stop cowardly bombing of Israeli towns and cities. Since Israel pulled out of Lebanon and Gaza in 2005 there is really no excuse for this and it solely results in making conditions tougher for the population. (I.e. Stop the bombings and you will be able to live much more freely.) The problem being that Israel has acted as a government and is therefore held accountable and Hamas is acting like a terrorist organisation despite claiming to be a government. It would also be worthwhile to condemn Hamas for their practice of using human shields and thus showing a blatant disregard for the Palestinian population who in my opinion are innocent and caught in the middle of all this. To conclude, by all means condemn Israel for being too rough and using excessive force but look at the other side of the coin and condemn Hamas for its campaign (not just over 24 days but constantly over 8 years) and their use of their own population for protection.
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
larry gartenstein
2:14 am
Jan 23, 2009
Why is it that the BBC is obseesed with its hatred of Israel and I guess Jews in general. Is it so influenced by its controlling muslim colleagues or there is a hidden agreement with amnesty international another organisation whose chief is a moslem. UK is getting closer to an Islamist state when it happens you chaps will know what censorship is all about
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
5 
0
ralph yodaiken
2:21 am
Jan 23, 2009
I was DELIGHTED to find so many people are fed up and infuriated by BBC’s onesided, short sighted, biased reporting. The accounts are sloppy, drip biased treacle and do neither the BBC nor the British Government any good.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
4 
0
James Rietberg
2:52 am
Jan 23, 2009
To the International media at large
You’ll use anything to target Israel with your smut.
From almost all western media we are informed that the IDF disallows ambulances to go through to where they are needed, they are more than often laden with hamas troops, and the UN paper tiger allows them to do it, you report on aid being disallowed to entre Gaza, the IDF must fight hamas to keep their hands off the “loot” and sell it to Gaza people.
You have not reported how the Gaza people hate hamas, you have not reported that hamas is taliban’s little brother, one and the same!!
People of Gaza are terrified of hamas and will report to you all the IDF atrocities in the presence of hamas, many of those you interview are hamas troops in disguise, those sweet-innocent faces of “fathers” teach their own children that a bomb is of greater worth than them.
You should hang your heads down in shame and embarrassment, the world is looking to you with disgust at you and that for which you stand; lies.
Maybe if a rocket is thrown into your office or home continually and loose a child, a wife, a house here and there; you’ll sympathise with Israel.
Yaakov Ariel
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
6 
0
ben cantor
3:05 am
Jan 23, 2009
Jew-haters ! Look up at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself time and again, why do I hate the jews ? Well, I’m affraid your alltimate conclusion is : its in my blood !! No logic what-so-ever. Just remember one thing : the dark middle ages era is OVER, and Israel in now FOREVER ! Now its your choice : Paradise or hell!!
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
nasser
3:48 am
Jan 23, 2009
bbc has always been biased about Israel. When are you going to stop that and work like an honest Journalist?
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
4 
0
Thomas Boros
12:12 pm
Jan 23, 2009
I wonder who are financing BBC to show all those true misery in the Gaza stip but not one word of the thousands of missile attackes on Israel for several years.Oh, I gues that is no news!!
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
5 
0
Dr. Michael Cunningham-Urtzell
2:25 pm
Jan 25, 2009
I am born of Jewish parents, raised as a Jew, raised to respect life, and defend truth and honesty. After the kind of reporting of the recent conflict in Gaza, I am ashamed of the totally biased nature of the BBC’s reporting, and that of so many other reporters. As a Rabbi friend of mine said, anti-Semitism is alive and well.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
5 
0
boris kushnir
5:29 pm
Mar 09, 2009
I just visited http://www.ofcom.org.uk/ site and do understand that at least UK media regulated by OFCOM” licenses. Why don’t we start to concentrate on the ofcom BBC investigation enforcement by filing joint complaint?
In my common sense understanding OFCOM is a public or government entity of the UK and if they are corrupted by any means then our next step will be dealing with UK government.
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
Abe Werth
9:04 pm
Mar 09, 2009
I do not read the BBC. Having read the comments above I will not ever read the BBC. Why should I? Prejudised reporting is dishonest and unworthy of dispassionate human beings. The country of Winston Churchill is dishonered by this verbal manipulation. If you want the world to acknowledge you as a basstian of freedom as you were in the past this must stop.
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
Lynn Sharon
5:07 pm
Mar 23, 2009
My blood runs cold when I read and hear BBC”s biased reports regarding Israel. It is obvious to me that Jews who defend themselves and ask only to live in peace with their neighbors, are anathema to the BBC reporters.
No doubt histrionics makes more exciting news and livelier photo-ops; Arab mothers screaming, children crying! Whereas, stoicism in the face of constant terror; our children bombarded daily by rockets; our homes, buses, restaurants, malls, the target of bloodthirsty killers, is boring. After all, who cares if a few Jews are slaughtered? Obviously not the BBC and its vicious anti-Semitic journalists.
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
joseph
6:35 pm
Mar 23, 2009
BBC REPORTING IS UNQUESTIONABLY BIASED AND TILTED IN FAVOR OF ARABS.
I WAS WATCHING YOUR REPORTING FOR MANY YEARS AND IS GETTING MORE UNPROFESSIONAL FROM YEAR TO YEAR.
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
Abitbol
6:40 pm
Mar 23, 2009
BBC should change its name in MBC “muslim broadcasting corporation” but I’m afraid it will be soon the entire nation to live in the Islamic Kingdom .I’m sad and angry.
May G..save Great Britain!
Agree or Disagree:
2 
0
Shirley Claff
7:35 pm
Mar 23, 2009
The one-sided reporting by the BBC in relation to events in Israel and Gaza is unnacceptable.
Why does the BBC refuse to publish the report on biased reporting / if there is nothing to hide let the report be seen.
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
Manuel G
8:53 pm
Mar 23, 2009
Re your comments & illustrations on your blog of the 23rd March regarding Jeremy Bowen’s & the BBC’s continuous acts of distortions & propaganda.
Let’s get this straight, Bowen is not an investigative journalist, he is nothing better than a propagandist for whatever the Arab world decides to do to Israel. His opening remarks on the eve of Israel’s counter attack upon Gaza was to pour scorn on Israel’s response by telling his viewers that Israel was replying to “rather crude rocket fire”. That was it; no historic background as to the 6500 indiscriminately fired rockets into Israel on a multi-rocket fire per day, for something like 5 years. That’s okay in his & the BBC’s book, it was only Israelis living in terror. Doesn’t count.
But nevertheless, this was a continuous war crime which Bowen chose to ignore. I wonder why?
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
philip robins
9:11 pm
Mar 23, 2009
unbalanced to say the least
inaccurate to say the most
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
Sandra Pryzant
3:34 am
Mar 24, 2009
I watch BBC news on television every evening and within minutes the disparaging of Israel commences.
There is never a day without their negative reporting.
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
Nomlas Fisher
7:00 am
Mar 24, 2009
Why? is every body so shocked at the BBC bias! take a look at the Staff!! It resembles the PLO,and all it’s affiliates,retired and those about to! We should Redirect our efforts to the Recipients, of the BBC’s Twisted,distorted reporting of History! for thats what they are doing! So lets show the World,on a Large,Well 0rganized scale,how BBC,Distorts,Make the comparisons,Show the Habitualy,uncooberrated stories that BBC,puts out!! N.Fisher,Vancouver,Canada.
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
Gordon Frickers
2:53 pm
Mar 24, 2009
As a former press photographer /journalist in SE England, I’d love to go to Gaza!
The problem though would be the age old one of editorial control.
What I saw and reported was so often not what was published.
This may be happening to BBC journos?
What comes around goes around?
The BBC has already lost much of it’s famous credibility, it just does not seem to know yet.
The time was when the BBC was THE reliable source of info.
Long Gone.
Given the current style of reporting the unsubstanciated (the excuse is we must others will) the time will come when the BBC formally THE champion of truth and accuracy will be widely regarded by new generations as just another news media source.
I salute the BBC that was and am saddened by the BBC that is.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
5 
0