BBC controversies about the Director General's decision'. The BBC's chief operating officer, Caroline Thomson, affirmed the need to broadcast "without affecting and impinging on the audience's perception of our impartiality" and that in this case, it was a "real issue." The 2009 Gaza appeal is the only occasion on which the BBC is known to have refused an appeal broadcast request from the DEC. It is reported the 2009 DEC Gaza appeal screened only by Channel 4 and ITV raised £8.3m. In August 2014 the BBC broadcast a new DEC aid appeal for people in Gaza, without similar controversy, which raised £16m
Criticism of the BBC appeal "violates the rules of basic human decency which are there to help vulnerable people irrespective of who is right or wrong." The BBC's chief operating officer, Caroline Thomson, affirmed the need to broadcast "without affecting and impinging on the audience's perception of our impartiality" and that in this case, it was a "real issue." In response to perceived falsehoods and distortions in a BBC One "Panorama" documentary entitled 'A Walk in the Park', transmitted in January 2010, British journalist Melanie Phillips wrote an open letter in news magazine "The Spectator" to the Secretary of State for Culture, Jeremy Hunt,