Radio programmes that are one-sided

I am a sporadic listener to both BBC and Campus FM. Shall I call it beginners' pot luck or coincidence? It happened on two programmes with the same modus operandi: No persons holding opposing views were on the panel.

The BBC programme was being transmitted from Egypt's Alexandria's rebuilt (with UN funds) library and followed in the step of the "freedom" allowed in that country's restricted "board game" democracy. Those holding opposing views were only allowed a few moments to speak up with the overwhelming time given over to those supporting evolution. Of the Muslim scholars invited on the panel no one hailed from the traditional schools. Likewise, no Christian creationist was invited by the BBC to sit at the podium.

So too Campus FM's programme on Maltese recent history - it was rather more akin to an unpaid advert for one University don's book, parroting some now almost entrenched leftist views of local history. A don who also unashamedly seemed to hold Robert Mugabe in a good light, a despot who, back in 1973, had the cheek to remark on the British military base's still laid out barbed wire, which his regime today still uses to torture and silence democrats opposed to the snuffing out of basic liberties in Zimbabwe. Something the learned man of letters did not ruffle any feather about - but then he may have, like so many at the University, filtered "sights".