BBC chief warns on threat to free speech

The row over the BBC's broadcast of Jerry Springer - The Opera is rumbling on.

On Monday night, BBC director-general Mark Thompson, speaking at the FT New Media and Broadcasting Conference in London, warned that lobbying from some Christian organisations against the broadcast was a threat to freedom of speech.

Calling the BBC's decision to air the programme "both right and important" because of a responsibility the corporation has of showcasing "the widest range of ideas," Thompson said that he believes that "this openness, along with the wider openness of our whole society, is under threat."

He continued: "The voices of those who would wish to limit it seem to be getting more strident. Small pressure groups can use the internet, e-mails and other modern communications tools to give a false impression of size and weight."

Some Christian groups considered the programme to be blasphemous due to content including an actor representing Jesus singing that he feels "a little bit gay." One group, "Christian Voice," even went so far as to publish the home addresses and phone numbers of BBC executives - some of whom reported receiving threatening telephone calls.

Complaints about the decision to air the show eventually totalled in the region of 50,000 - many of them having been filed before the show was broadcast.