Broadcaster removed episode of Big Brother series last week to edit out Palestinian watermelon symbol from t-shirt
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has published a letter that it is asking supporters to send to broadcast regulator Ofcom, telling it to order ITV to stop censoring Palestine from its programmes. Last week, ITV removed an episode of its Big Brother series after pressure from pro-Israel groups, before removing a watermelon emblem of Palestinian freedom and resistance from a t-shirt worn by a contestant, which it said could be ‘deemed harmful’.
PSC’s announcement reads:
Tell Ofcom to investigate ITV’s censorship of Palestine! 🚨
Last week, ITV censored a t-shirt displaying a watermelon in the shape of a map of historic Palestine, worn by Big Brother contestant Ali Bromley
Originally, the t-shirt was displayed, before the episode was removed from ITV’s online on-demand service and reuploaded with the symbol removed.
The channel went on to issue an apology for originally displaying the t-shirt, insinuating it fell foul of its prohibition on “personal items” which could be “deemed harmful.”
Such egregious censorship of a symbol of Palestinian national identity must not go unchallenged.
✍️ Use the link… to write to Ofcom and demand it investigates and forces ITV to apologise for this censorship.
Israel has murdered hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians since October last year and is currently using starvation to force out the surviving population from northern Gaza. It is also waging a terror campaign against the people of Lebanon and has invaded the south of the country, where it is already committing war crimes, targeting civilians and attacking UN peacekeepers. The UK government has said this week that it considers it unhelpful to call the mass slaughter in Gaza a genocide.
Sign the letter here.
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Duly signed.
And I sincerely hope it explodes that talentless twat riley’s head.
I signed it too.
Signed the petition as well. I don’t watch much broadcast tv, only local news, and certainly not Big Brother. Pure guff so it is.
I’ve just signed and informed others about it.
Related question: I mainly access al-jazeera as a Free-View broadcast channel. Since the 1st of this month, every time I try to tune in I get a long delay (“Loading…” message). What’s going on?? I thought free-view channels were all broadcast/not digital channels?
ANYONE KNOW?
Tv needs a returne. đź‘Ť
In fact, I’ve just retuned my tv and the same things happened?! 🤔
I was told (by Al-Jzzra) to retune on 1st Oct, and it’s since then that this happens, yeah.
Even when I patiently wait for the claimed ‘loading’ to happen, about 10 mins after, once the programme is running, I get a black/dead screen. Change channel required, but the same thing happens….
Is it my freeview box, or would the same thing happen on a “smartTV”?
Worryingly, is this a sneaky way to stop people tuning in to aljazeera?