International

BBC's Asian Network leaves them cold

By Hasan Suroor

BIRMINGHAM, NOV. 25. The BBC has invested millions of pounds in a digital radio channel dedicated exclusively to Britain's Asian community — a project which many believe sits oddly with the government's stress on ``integrating'' immigrant groups into the national mainstream.

BBC executives at the Asian Network, who briefed a group of London-based foreign correspondents, were hard put to explain how a separate community channel would promote integration.

Vijay Sharma, head of the network, was asked whether the BBC was not emphasising ``exclusion'' by providing Asians a channel outside its mainstream broadcasting? Did it not amount to putting the community in a ``box'' by feeding it the usual diet of ``bhangra'' and Bollywood song-and-dance routine? Why should taxpayers' money be used to fund a channel for one community? And would it not trigger a demand from other communities for a channel of their own?

Two non-Asian journalists in the group — a Japanese and an Albanian — wondered why Asians alone had been chosen for a special favour? And how about giving the new immigrants from Eastern Europe a similar channel?

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