Please Help! The BBC are picking on my business The BBC states: Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest. However my experience with them is rather different. What we want to see is independent debate and honest reporting of facts, so if you agree with me that all Presenters and Programme makers (not just Jonathon Ross and Russell Brand) should be held personally accountable for the damage caused by their programmes, which are proved to have contravened the BBC’s own standards please sign the petition. This is my story I am a 24 year old entrepreneur working in our small family business, www.crystalspring.co.uk , importing and selling Crystal Spring Salt of the Earth Deodorants, Detoxology Footpads and J-Rub organic massage oil. On Monday 6th April BBC Watchdog aired a programme on detoxing, if you didn't see it you can watch the detoxing part at this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/04/do_detox_products_deliver.html 1. Whatever your personal views of detoxing and our Detoxology footpads would you agree Watchdogs report on Detoxing was biased, unfair and dishonest 2. Unlike most of the companies that are investigated by Watchdog we were not mentioned because of any customer complaints, illegal or dodgy business practices, but because the presenters, and their panel chose ratings over impartiality. During our correspondence with Watchdog we gave them evidence to show our products work and referred them to bodies that support the principle of detoxing and that have published evidence that detox works. http://www.anhcampaign.org/news/detox-works-%E2%80%94-we-can-prove-it 3. The BBC’s own Editorial Guidelines state “we should not automatically assume that academics and journalists from other organisations are impartial and make it clear to our audience when contributors are associated with a particular viewpoint”. The Watchdogs panel were Tom Wells a member of the Voice of Young Science, who openly states on their website that “We’d like to see an end to detox products on the British high street”, Ben Goldacre, a Doctor who recently published Detox Debunked, in The Sunday Times Style magazine and Lucy Jones, a member of the British Dietetic Association, who state on their website “the idea of ‘detox’ is a load of nonsense”. Watchdog made no attempt to make it clear that their experts were not impartial and were associated with a particular viewpoint. Despite our request that they include an expert on their panel who did believe in detoxing (and there are many, but, as I stated earlier my purpose is not to convert you), it didn’t happen. 4. This is the second time this year that the BBC have picked on our products. The One Show, on which the same presenter Anita Rani worked at the time, also rubbished our products with biased one sided reporting. 5. If Programme makers and presenters are found to have knowingly broken the BBC’s codes of conduct and unfairly impacted on peoples businesses and lifes, we think they should be personally accountable (if they have done it to us they will have done it to others). They are in positions of huge power and can do a great deal of harm if they chose ratings over substance, choose to ignore evidence that doesn’t suit their opinion instead of “independence, integrity and honesty”. An apology does not restore the damage, especially if its tucked away on the BBC website and it’s just not fair. Kind Regards and thanks for your help, Thomas Laird

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