If you watch the BBC World Service you may have noticed the large number of presenters with such names as: Matthew Amroliwalla, Yalda Hakim, Zeinab Badawi, Geeta Gurumurthy, George Alagiah, Mishal Hussein, Babita Sharma, Adnan Nawaz, Rajesh Merchandani, James Coomarasamy, Reeta Chakrabati and others.  Actually some of these people are derived not from the Indian sub-continent and many of them are of Muslim origin, such as Badawi from Sudan or Hakim from Afghanistan, but the large number of such names indicates a pervasive influence of Indian and third world opinion in BBC News content.  Certainly many of these presenters are very professional and indeed glib in their presentations, and their English accents are impeccable, but that does not change the fact that there is a disproportionate cadre of third world presenters at the BBC.  To see the extent of this influence one must compare other international channels, such as CNN or Fox, where there are no such presenters.

Why is there this prevalence of Indians and third worlders at the BBC?  Certainly it is because of the presence in the UK of a large number of people of Indian origin (including Pakistani and Bangladeshi), whose families emigrated to the UK during the period of English control of India and other former Empire countries since then.  But, it must also indicate a degree of bringing in members of the same culture once inroads are made (Jews were always criticized for this tendency).  Could this cadre of Indians be part of the reason for the very anti-Israel slant of the BBC in its reporting of the Middle East?  Certainly, since they do exercise editorial control over the content that is included in BBC News broadcasts.  Is this the main problem, probably not, since the presence of these many people of Indian origin is a symptom rather than a cause of the problem.

When you have left-leaning reporters such as Lyse Doucet (who is from Quebec) and Orla Guerin (Irish) in leading roles in the BBC hierarchy, both of whom have shown clear anti-Israel bias when reporting from the Middle East, it is not surprising that a predominantly third-world viewpoint is presented that accords with the majority of Islamic and Indian viewers around Asia.  However, there are very few African and Chinese or other Asian presenters, so this Indian presence does represent a bias in appointments at the BBC.  Also, there are none or very few identifiable Jewish names on the BBC list.