Christian group loses Springer court case

Christian Voice director Stephen Green has lost his court case to prosecute the BBC over its screening of Jerry Springer: The Opera.

Green was hoping to overturn a previous ruling from the City of Westminster magistrates that prevented him from suing BBC director general Mark Thompson.

He argued that the district judge made an error in not allowing legal action to be taken and insisted that the programme "clearly crossed the blasphemy threshold".

However, two High Court judges have now ruled that the TV show "in context" could not be viewed as blasphemous.

The BBC received 63,000 complaints after screening the musical on BBC Two in January 2005.