BBC has NOT dropped BC/AD terms

Yesterday the Mail on Sunday announced, with its usual indignant outrage, that the BBC was dropping the AD/BC terminology in favour of the “politically correct” BC/BCE. However, that is NOT the case.

Just in case you are a little confused as to what BCE/CE means in terms of years BC stands for Before Common Era and therefore, logically, CE stands for Common Era. For some time now that terminology has been used in history books and on a wide range of programmes over the more traditional, and Christian, BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini – Year of our Lord).

So yesterday the Mail on Sunday claimed that “political correctness” at the BBC meant it was dropping BC/AD terms in programmes because they offended religious minorities because of their Christian connotations. Only one problem with the story; the BBC IS NOT dropping the use of BC/AD at all. The Mail on Sunday story seems to come from a small paragraph on the BBC website which asked why the religion section of the website uses BCE/CE “In line with modern practice bbc.co.uk/religion uses BCE/CE as a religiously neutral alternative to BC/AD. As the BBC is committed to impartiality it is appropriate that we use terms that do not offend or alienate non-Christians.” Yes that’s because the religion part of the BBC website actually covers a wide range of religions not just Christianity.

As for the BBC as a whole the corporation has not banned the use of BC/AD at all. In is merely up to the programme maker/presenter themselves to decide which terms to use. So some presenters will continue to use BC/AD while others will opt for the more modern BCE/CE. So what is wrong with individual free choice in the matter, Mail on Sunday?

Of course today there have been numerous articles and columns picking in today’s papers picking up on the Mail on Sunday story. We’re hard pressed to actually find a columnist who checked their facts on the case. The Daily Mail’s Melanie Phillips – who has often fallen foul of gay rights campaigners – wrote an article claiming language was being hijacked by “the left”. She also managed to bring the whole thing around to the subject of homosexuality – a neat trick but we’re not quite sure how relevant homosexuality is to the use of BCE/CE over AD/BC. Still seeing as its an article within the Daily Mail we’ll just have to assume its sticking to the mantra of any old excuse to bash the BBC and/or the gays.