by Heather Tomlinson, Christian Today
As a former Today programme journalist and author of two books on bias in the BBC, Robin Aitken MBE has been closer to the inner workings of the media giant than most of its critics.
He tells Christian Today that the dominant worldview of UK journalists can lead them to misunderstand or ignore issues that are important to Christians around the world – especially the severe persecution of believers in some of the poorest countries around the world.
For example, a recent massacre in the Democratic Republic of Congo was barely mentioned, and there has been limited reporting of the disturbing situation in northern Nigeria where Christians are regularly killed and kidnapped.
Why do you think the persecution of Christians is under-reported in the media?
One explanation I’ve heard put forward is – coming from the position of a majority Christian culture, as our media does – the supposition is that Christians are part of the dominant world culture, and therefore are always in a stronger position than other religions. I think that’s profoundly mistaken in many ways. However British journalists, as a misplaced politeness almost, consider Christians to be in the driving seat. Therefore what persecution they suffer is of less interest than those who are viewed as more vulnerable minorities.
There is another explanation that is more troubling. Within the media, most British journalists, in my experience, are either without religion or hostile to it. There are exceptions … but there is a lot of hostility in sections of the media towards religion itself. That is manifested in a disregard and an uninterest in what happens to Christian minorities whose persecution doesn’t strike them with the same force as when other religious minorities are persecuted.