Behzti playwright accuses BBC of 'extraordinary' censorship of 'honour killings' episode

A leading playwright has accused the BBC of an extraordinary act of censorship after the corporation told her to cut key lines from a drama about honour killings which will be broadcast by Radio 4 this week.

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, whose controversial play Behzti was pulled from a Birmingham theatre in 2004 following protests from the Sikh community, wrote an episode for Radio 4s DCI Stone series, which will be broadcast in the Afternoon Drama slot.

Bhattis episode, called Heart Of Darkness and due to air on Friday, tells the story of an investigation into the killing of a 16 year-old Asian girl, whose dumped body is found after being stabbed to death.

When it emerges that the girl was a victim of an honour killing, DCI Stone is told by his bosses is to treat the case sensitively because of her Muslim heritage.

A week before recording I got an email from the producer saying the BBC compliance department had asked them to take lines out, Bhatti told the Index On Censorship conference on artistic freedom of expression in the UK, held at the South Bank.

At the end, a character says: There is so much pressure in our community, to look right and to behave right. The compliance department came back and said we dont want to suggest the entire Muslim community condones honour killings.

Its an extraordinary and awful situation. They said the lines were offensive but they absolutely were not. We live in a fear-ridden culture.

Unbelievably, what the compliance department said was if you can find a factual example of community pressure leading to an honour killing, you can have the line. But its a drama, a story.

Its a crucial part of that story. I was very disappointed given my previous experience of censorship. If you take out the line, the whole thing changes, its a betrayal of the character and the truth of the unfolding story.

Bhattis play Behzti, which contained scenes of rape, abuse and murder inside a Sikh temple, provoked massive demonstrations outside the Birmingham Rep. But she is now a writer on The Archers and said that Heart Of Darkness, commissioned for an afternoon slot, contained nothing that ought to be seen as provocative.

Go here to see the original:
Behzti playwright accuses BBC of 'extraordinary' censorship of 'honour killings' episode