In July 2014 BBC Worldwide began blocking You Tube copies of ‘Saving Syria’s Children’.
BBC Worldwide has claimed that it “has not been pursuing a deliberate policy of seeking out or blocking” ‘Saving Syria’s Children’ above other editions of Panorama and that “the blocks are made by the automated YouTube copyright protection system”. It states that its priority is to “protect the newest episodes” which “are blocked faster than older and archive episodes which can take up to 6 months for the YouTube system to find and block”.
A review on 28 August 2014 found that just five of the 31 recent editions of Panorama that a quick search had found available on You Tube on 2 August 2014 had subsequently been removed or blocked.
Two of the five removed programmes – ”The Mayor and Our Money’ and ‘Educating North Korea’ – were available at other locations on You Tube (in one case multiple versions) and at least one edition that had not been available on 2 August (‘Drivers Who Kill’, broadcast July 21) was also available.
Thus a somewhat cursory check finds that, as at 28 August 2014, at least 23 more recent editions of Panorama than ‘Saving Syria’s Children’ remain available on You Tube, almost a month after BBC Worldwide had offered its thanks “for highlighting those episodes of Panorama that are still live on YouTube” stating “we will look into removing these as soon as possible”.
Update 24 December 2014
The Mayor and Our Money (31 March 2014) – alternative copies
Educating North Korea (3 February 2014) – alternative copy
Drivers who Kill (21 July 2014) – newest available edition on You Tube at 28 August 2014
