BBC's 30 "experts" who decided in 2006 that balance on AGW wasn't needed

The British Broadcast Corporation is legally obliged to be impartial. However, at one point, the BBC Trust has boldly informed the public that after a seminar held on January 26th, 2006, the public news organization has decided that no balance was needed in climate reporting anymore and the organization would continue to spread the demagogy of the unhinged climate alarmists only.



The organization would insist that the decision was made by a few dozens of top invited scientific experts and it would use every trick to hide the identity of these "experts". Indeed, last Friday, a judge decided that the BBC wasn't obliged to reveal the identity of its "experts" so blogger Tony Newbery, the plaintiff, lost.

However, climate blogger Maurizio Morabito legally made the bizarre legal decision irrelevant. He found out a web copy of the list of participants on the Web.Archive.ORG internet archive time machine.

And it is a very powerful stuff. See comments at The Register (plus page 2).




I would like to invite the TRF readers to some simple research – and find out some fair description of all the "experts" in the list and something about their scientific credentials and impartiality. To me, the list looks like a collection of NGO activists, lobbyists, and representatives financially motivated green industry groups.

If you present some evidence and links in the comments and an alternative description of the "specialists", I will update this article. I have already chaotically changed the ordering of the list so that the "more scientific" beginning doesn't make a wrong impression. But building on similar lists of "experts" when decisions about trillions of dollars are being made is rather extraordinary, isn't it?

January 26th 2006, BBC Television Centre, London

Specialists: (30)

1. Blake Lee-Harwood, Head of Campaigns, Greenpeace
2. Li Moxuan, Climate campaigner, Greenpeace China
3. Colin Challen MP, Chair, All Party Group on Climate Change
4. Jos Wheatley, Global Environment Assets Team, DFID
5. Ashok Sinha, Stop Climate Chaos
6. Tessa Tennant, Chair, AsRia (transforming Asia to sustainable development)
7. Tadesse Dadi, Tearfund (campaigning for justice) Ethiopia
8. Andy Atkins, Advocacy Director, Tearfund
9. Eleni Andreadis, undergraduate student majoring in brainwashing at the Kennedy School of Government and filmmaker, Harvard University, and hot director of 7-12 years old Planet Agents, Greece
10. Iain Wright, CO2 Project Manager, BP International
11. Andrew Dlugolecki, Insurance industry consultant
12. Trevor Evans, US Embassy
13. Anuradha Vittachi, Director, Oneworld.net representing 1,600 NGOs fighting poverty
14. Andrew Simms, Policy Director, New Economics Foundation fighting to replace economics by "ecological stability"
15. Claire Foster, Church of England
16. Saleemul Huq, International Institute for Environment and Development
17. Matthew Farrow, CBI
18. Rafael Hidalgo, TV/multimedia producer
19. Cheryl Campbell, Executive Director, Television for the Environment
20. Kevin McCullough, Director, Npower Renewables
21. Richard D North, Institute of Economic Affairs
22. Steve Widdicombe, Plymouth Marine Labs
23. Joe Smith, The Open University
24. Poshendra Satyal Pravat, Open University
25. Mark Galloway, Director, International Broadcasting Trust
26. Anita Neville, E3G Change Agents for Sustainable Development
27. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen
28. Michael Bravo, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge
29. Robert May, Oxford University and Imperial College London
30. Mike Hulme, Director, Tyndall Centre, UEA

For the sake of completeness:
BBC employee attendees: (28)

1. Jana Bennett, Director of Television
2. Sacha Baveystock, Executive Producer, Science
3. Helen Boaden, Director of News
4. Andrew Lane, Manager, Weather, TV News
5. Anne Gilchrist, Executive Editor Indies & Events, CBBC
6. Dominic Vallely, Executive Editor, Entertainment
7. Eleanor Moran, Development Executive, Drama Commissioning
8. Elizabeth McKay, Project Executive, Education
9. Emma Swain, Commissioning Editor, Specialist Factual
10. Fergal Keane, (Chair), Foreign Affairs Correspondent
11. Fran Unsworth, Head of Newsgathering
12. George Entwistle, Head of TV Current Affairs
13. Glenwyn Benson, Controller, Factual TV
14. John Lynch, Creative Director, Specialist Factual
15. Jon Plowman, Head of Comedy
16. Jon Williams, TV Editor Newsgathering
17. Karen O’Connor, Editor, This World, Current Affairs
18. Catriona McKenzie, Tightrope Pictures
19. Liz Molyneux, Editorial Executive, Factual Commissioning 
20. Matt Morris, Head of News, Radio Five Live 
21. Neil Nightingale, Head of Natural History Unit 
22. Paul Brannan, Deputy Head of News Interactive 
23. Peter Horrocks, Head of Television News 
24. Peter Rippon, Duty Editor, World at One/PM/The World this Weekend 
25. Phil Harding, Director, English Networks & Nations 
26. Steve Mitchell, Head Of Radio News 
27. Sue Inglish, Head Of Political Programmes 
28. Frances Weil, Editor of News Special Events