BBC World Service responds as Peter Tatchell slams homophobia in blog by Persian branch

Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: iStock/provided

The BBC World Service has responded after Peter Tatchell complained of homophobic content ran by its Persian branch.

The human rights activist pointed to a December 2020 blog post about the concept of nostalgia written in Farsi which allegedly contained the word ‘faggot’ in the Persian language.

Homosexuality is punishable by execution in Iran.

Speaking on the Iran International TV station today, Tatchell said the BBC had promised a full investiagtion into his complaints, adding: “These are serious issues about quite grave departures from the BBC’s normally high standards of ethics in journalism.”

The blog also compared LGBTQs to opium addicts and people who commit incest, according to The Peter Tatchell Foundation. They furthermore add that, after complaints, these references were replaced with a word meaning “abomination.”

A rep for the BBC World Service said in a statement: “A freelance opinion piece has been updated with an acknowledgement on our website. We will provide a full response to Mr Tatchell in due course.” 

The blog now states: “In an earlier version of this article, a word was used to refer to homosexual relations in the historical context of Iran that is not among the terms that the BBC uses to describe sexual orientations and was therefore inappropriate.”

“Appalling homophobia”

In his original letter to Tim Davie, Director-General of the BBC, and Jamie Angus, leader of the World Service, Tatchell addressed the “appalling homophobia” of the blog post, adding: “I accept that you had no idea of what the BBC Persian Director and staff were doing in the name of the BBC.

“But I now call on you to put things right […].  

“The rot in BBC Persian must stop now and measures be taken to ensure that this never happens again.”

He also called for an inquiry “into persistent allegations that BBC Persian is infiltrated by staff who are apologists or possibly agents for the Iranian dictatorship.”

Tatchell’s email also contained a link to a BBC Persian video seemingly mocking “so-called” LGBT Pride.

BBC Persian is banned in Iran, and its journalists reportedly face harassment and persecution by the Iranian authorities.

In his email, Tatchell also said: “BBC World Service is funded from the licence fee. In 2016 the UK Government awarded it a £291 million grant over four years for a programme of modernisation and new language service. This grant is administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 

“Now imagine a lonely member of the LGBT community in Iran, one of the quarter of the weekly global audience that is aged between 15 and 24, turning to BBC Persian for just a tiny bit of sustenance and intellectual nourishment. Some challenging ideas. To benefit from ‘one of the UK’s must important cultural exports – inspiring and illuminating the lives of people across the globe, helping them make sense of the world they live in.’

“And what she gets is ‘f***t’ – later that day mysteriously changed to ‘abomination’ with no explanation […].”