British citizen's open letter to BBC over Jonathan Head accusing Duterte being high on Fentanyl

Pinoy-at-heart British and founder of Founder of Filipino events, Malcolm Conlan sent an open letter to BBC News Television Network calling the attention of Director General Tony Hall with regards to senior broadcaster Jonathan Head.

A twitter post of Head is circulating online accusing President Rodrigo Roa Duterte of being high on Fentanyl.

"Explains a lot. I wonder if he is still exceeding his dose of fentanyl?" Head said following a quote from the Rappler "where they quoted President Duterte and his lack of sleep due to his hectic schedule.""

Read the letter of Conlan below:

"An Open Letter to the BBC complaining about the online Twitter insults directed towards President Rodrigo Duterte by Mr Jonathan Head of the BBC.

FAO: Tony Hall

Director General

BBC

Dear Mr Hall,

I am writing with great concern, following the standard letter I received from your complaints department, following the exclusive interview that the BBC had with the blogger behind the Pinoy Ako Blog, Jover Laurio on 13th October 2017 on one of your news features.

 Jonathan Head / Photo credits to the owner

In the response I got from the BBC, I was assured that the BBC claimed it wasn’t biased and always reported the news fairly.

The letter then went on to say that the BBC News ‘never takes a position on anything that we cover’

Please see below the paragraph that I am referring to:

‘Naturally we regret when any member of our audience is unhappy with any part of what we do. Impartiality is a core value of the BBC, and one reason why we believe our news coverage is trusted and respected around the world. We apply this principle to our reporting of all issues. BBC News never takes a position on anything that we cover, but we always aim to reflect a broad range of voices on any given subject. The BBC is of course independent of any political or commercial interests, and our news agenda would never be influenced by any outside organisation’.

Jonathan Head / Photo credits to the owner

I would expect on that note for all of your journalists and corespondents to also not display any bias or perceived vendetta towards any particular prominent individual.

I am just wondering how then, on Twitter, following a quote on the Rappler blog, where they quoted President Duterte and his lack of sleep due to his hectic schedule, Jonathan Head, one of your senior broadcasters who uses the Twitter handle of @pakhead accused the President of the Republic of the Philippines, Rodrigo Roa Duterte of being high on Fentanyl?

He seemed to indicate that Fentanyl which is a pain relieving drug which the President had admitted to using in the past for medical reasons, would make the President lack sleep.

Firstly, fentanyl, would actually have the opposite effect and make a patient drowsy, secondly, it appears that Mr Head is somehow insinuating that the President of the Philippines is taking the drug on a regular basis and this somehow affects him.

The question is, how can Mr Head remain impartial and fair when he has clearly insulted and accused the President of the Philippines in such a manner?

This is not the kind of behaviour I would expect from a senior BBC journalist, I would also hope that you carry out an immediate investigation.

Thank you very much

Kind regards

Malcolm Conlan

London, UK

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Source: Facebook / Malcolm Conlan