MP hits at 'racist' Panorama

The Labour MP George Galloway wants an investigation into what he described as the "racist" programme produced by BBC1's Panorama on the two British nurses freed from a Saudi jail.

Galloway: "Tabloid television at its worst"

The BBC has rejected the accusations about the programme, which was broadcast on Thursday, May 21, the day the nurses arrived back in Britain.

It included a re-enactment of the nurses' descriptions of how they were mistreated by the Saudi police when they were interrogated after the murder of their Australian colleague Yvonne Gilford.

In an interview, Deborah Parry protested her innocence and told of her horror when she heard on the radio in her cell that she was to be beheaded.

Mr Galloway, MP for Glasgow Kelvin, said: "This programme was tabloid television at its worst.

'Abandoned all pretence of balance'

"The portrayal of the nurses as white Anglo-Saxon innocents abroad and the Arabs on the programme as corpulent, sweaty, venal thugs was a racist caricature likely to encourage racial hatred."

He said the programme had "abandoned all pretence of balance in dealing with the controversy."

A BBC spokesman said: "The Saudi authorities were given an opportunity to participate in the programme last December and again last week, but they declined. They were told the nature of the programme."

He added: "As a piece of journalism, we're pretty happy with it and we're happy it was balanced in the sense that all those involved were invited on."

Torture and threat allegations

The programme had taken almost a year to make and had included the nurses' description of what happened to them when they were interrogated. "We don't believe it was unfair," the spokesman said.

Parry, 39, of Alton, Hampshire, and Lucille McLauchlan, 32, from Dundee, were freed a week ago after King Fahd pardoned them.

The pair allege Saudi police used torture and threats of gang rape to make them confess to the murder of Yvonne Gilford, and later retracted the statements.

Mr Galloway's complaints have already prompted a Press Complaints Commission inquiry into the payments made by the Mirror Group and Express newspapers to the nurses for their stories.