The mountains of media coverage he's garnering by taking up a residency in the Big Brother house are not apparently to the satisfaction of George Galloway's comrades in Respect. The problem, it would seem, is that its the wrong type of coverage - ie fun, trivial and far from political - which is of little appeal to socialist activists, given their desire to concentrate instead on the anti-imperialist struggle.
As predicted in the Guardian, Channel 4 are sticking closely to the Ofcom guidelines and not allowing him to use the BB house as a soapbox from which to attack Tony Blair and George Bush. Respect told Guardian Unlimited this afternoon that the party was writing a formal letter to the channel complaining of "censorship" and disputing what they see as the broadcaster's "overzealous" interpretation of section five of the guidelines.
They claim that when the housemates had to explain to each other yesterday why they were famous, Mr Galloway must have made some political comments but these never appeared in the edited highlights. They also question whether the channel is "being leant on by New Labour people" who don't want his views aired to a mass audience. Channel 4 told Respect when they phoned to complain yesterday that, as well as sticking to the Ofcom guidelines, the decision on whether to include or cut comments was an editorial one that is made "on a case-by-case basis" and deny there is any blanket censorship of the Bethnal Green MP.
The Ofcom guidelines make it clear that Channel 4 must stick to the "due impartiality" clause in sections 5.11 and 5.12 of the code. This means that if Mr Galloway starts commenting on Iraq or other "matters of controversy" Channel 4 is then obliged to include a wide range of views on this topic either within BB itself or in another clearly marked programme (ie an announcer might have to say after a BB episode, "The Labour party will be responding to some of the issues raised by George Galloway tonight in a debate in Channel 4 News tomorrow").
Understandably this is not really what the Channel wants to do - hence the heavy editing. Complaints to the media are not unusual for Respect and this is by no means the first time he's come to blows with the channel. When Channel 4 News made a six-minute feature on his fight against Oona King before the last election his spokesman rang up afterwards to complain that the piece was a "slur" even though it allowed him to pronounce at length about Ms King's complicity in Tony Blair's "crimes" in Iraq. Respect threatened to withold any future cooperation with the Channel and said Mr Galloway would not be interviewed by Channel 4 again. All this was quietly forgotten when he looked like he might actually beat Ms King.
Is this new complaint a clever diversion? After all, Labour fully intend to recapture the seat next time and are running a campaign demanding to know why Mr Galloway has abandoned his constituents. A London Labour official pointed out today that George Galloway will miss a crucial debate on Crossrail - which will run through his constituency - because he'll still be inside the BB house on Thursday. Also its not clear if Labour are behind this, but it suggests that the long-suffering voters in the East End are the ones who should be complaining. Not only does Mr Galloway have a less-than-exemplary voting record in this parliament, but during his BB stay he has, at the time of writing, earned at least £640 of taxpayers money via his MP's salary.
