Disasters Emergency Committee a total of £107 million. On 22 January 2009, the BBC declined a request from the DEC to screen an appeal to raise money to aid relief efforts for victims of conflict in the Gaza Strip. This decision was the object of considerable controversy within the BBC as it is the only time the BBC is known to have refused such a request from the DEC; the 2009 Gaza appeal in question was screened by Channel 4 and ITV and raised £8.3m. Since then, the BBC has broadcast other DEC aid appeals for people in Gaza, without similar controversy. The
BBC Three issue another correspondent endorsed this assessment on the basis of a search through issues of the "Radio Times", and cast doubt on the BBC's claim (in the document "Performance Against Public Commitments 2009/10") that the channel broadcast '54 hours of new music and arts programming' in that year. Two months later the same correspondent wrote in to inform readers that the BBC had refused his 'Freedom of Information' request concerning the titles of the programmes used in calculating the '54 hours' total. BBC Three BBC Three was a British television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Launched on 9