BBC Trust rules ‘Gypsy’ Holocaust joke “offensive”

From the Travellers' Times

THE BBC watchdog has responded to an appeal by the Traveller Movement and upheld a complaint over a joke about “giving Gypsies the run of a concentration camp” that was broadcast on the Bafta Award winning Radio 4 comedy series ‘The Party’.

The BBC Trust, who’s role it is to ensure that the BBC abides by its public service remit, said that the joke was “ill-considered given the reality of the Holocaust experience for Gypsies and the prejudice that Gypsies have encountered in the past and which is still to some extent present today.” The Trust ruled that ‘The Party’ broke editorial guidelines because the joke “was offensive (and) trivialised the experience of a minority group during the Holocaust.”

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