Just a quick note to let you know, I've just been thrown off a BBC World
Service programme, for saying that unsafe formula feeding kills babies
in Africa.
The programme went out live at 6pm, BST time, here, and I was booked, at
the last minutes, to do an hour of the whole world programme, and then
the 30 minutes afterwards, on Africa only.
When I asked the discussion about breastfeeding be 'creepy' be about
women being put in impossible position, and maybe we should look at why
an intelligent, articulate, well educated woman in the UK would be so
creeped out by a baby touching her breast... the mic was closed. When I
said we needed to address the pressure to formula feed, not the pressure
to breastfeed... the mic was closed. When I stated that 4000 babies die
everyday from unsafe formula feeding... the mic was closed.
I was then taken off air, and roundly shouted at by the producer. I
challenged her, and stated that we could not have global context
discussion on breastfeeding, without discussing formula feeding, and how
on earth could she ask a women in Nairobi if she'd support a woman to
formula feed if she wanted to? That ignoring the situation in Africa
with formula, and acting if we were all in the UK, was precisely the
bias they were showing. She said the World Service was for everyone,
and I asked how a women in the slums in Kenya, tonight, would feel,
listening to us prattling on about formula feeding as a supported
choice. Did she have any idea who many babies would die tonight, in
Kenya, from formula feeding?
She blew up, said I'd said formula feeding kills babies, and that was
making her very angry, and I was out of the programme. A taxi would be
called to take me away right away, and good bye.
I'll blog thoroughly when I've had a cup of tea,
But, somehow, I thought you'd like to to know, about the censorship that
occurred this evening, at the hands of the BBC World Service.
Morgan Gallagher
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