BBC takes Kilroy off air over Arab comments

The BBC is taking the Kilroy programme off air after presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk sparked outrage with his comments about Arabs…

The BBC is taking the Kilroyprogramme off air after presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk sparked outrage with his comments about Arabs.

In a statement, the BBC said it "strongly disassociates itself" with comments Mr Kilroy-Silk made in his newspaper column at the weekend, and has begun an investigation.

Under the headline "We Owe Arabs Nothing", he branded Arabs as "suicide bombers, limb amputators, women repressors". The Commission for Racial Equality has referred the matter to the police.

The BBC statement read: "The BBC strongly disassociates itself from the views expressed in an article by Robert Kilroy-Silk in the Sunday Expressof 4 January 2004. We stress that these comments do not reflect the views of the BBC."

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The daily show was due to go out as usual on Monday but will be replaced by an extended half-hour of BBC Breakfast.

Mr Kilroy-Silk apologised tonight for his comments. "I greatly regret the offence which has been caused by the article published in last weekend's Sunday Express," he said in a statement.

"The article contains a couple of obvious factual errors which I also regret." He said the article was first written in April and had been "republished last weekend in error".

In a statement, he said: "When the article was originally published last year, it caused no comment or outcry and, I was told at the time, generated only a couple of letters to the paper. I would never have wished it to be republished in this manner and it is not what I would have said today."

He said the article had caused offence because it had been taken out of the context in which he wrote it.

"It was originally written as a response to the views of opponents to the war in Iraq that Arab States 'loathe' the West and my piece referred to 'Arab States' rather than 'Arabs'.

"Out of that context, it has obviously caused great distress and offence and I can only reiterate that I very deeply regret that."

PA