VIEWERS COMPLAIN ABOUT BBC’S COVERAGE OF MANDELA DEATH

Some 850 viewers filed complaints with the BBC against its coverage of the death of Nelson Mandela last week, the publicly supported broadcaster said today (Monday). Several viewers were irate that the announcement interrupted a repeat broadcast of the comedy hit Mrs. Brown’s Boys. Others complained that the BBC devoted so much attention to the death of the former South African leader that news about a threatening storm was given short shrift. Responding to the complaints, BBC News Director James Harding apologized, then, according to the Guardian newspaper, commented: “Nobody needs a lecture on [Mandela’s] importance but we are probably talking about the most important statesman, the most significant statesman, of the last 100 years, a man who defined freedom, justice, reconciliation, forgiveness. The importance of his life and marking his death seems extremely clear to us.”