Dr. Shibley Rahman
[address]

Sir Michael Lyons, 12th July 2010
Chairman of the BBC Trust,
180 Great Portland Street,
London.
W1W 5QZ

Dear Sir,

URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL

I know that you must be incredibly busy, and it is a honour and privilege for me to write to you. I suspect that you will know nothing of my case yet, which has been going for 8 months nearly.

To serve as background, I am copying you a copy of a letter which I am sending to Fran O’Brien, BBC Head of Editorial Standards, today. The purpose of this present letter is that I should like you very much to bear witness to how my complaint has been managed thus far by BBC Complaints, and for you to consider what lessons – if any – that can learnt from this incident. In a nutshell, the BBC reported my regulatory case with the GMC in a highly inaccurate way across three online news stories within a space of about a week in 2006, claiming I was working at the Brompton at the time (inter alia), when the case involved me as a doctor with a severe alcohol problem. These stories should never have been classified in the ‘Entertainment’ section, but actually this label reflects rather well the ‘gutter-press’ style and content of the articles. They gave the impression that this was a stalking case (this case was nothing to do with stalking) and failed to allude to the substantial alcohol problems which had made it impossible for me to continue my professional career in medicine. Although medicine constitutes over a decade of my life that I have no wish to return to, I feel that the BBC should have some degree of human compassion for me: a human, now disabled human-being (due to a coma in 2007 due to meningitis), who has given up alcohol for four years, and who is trying desperately hard to rebuild his place in society.

The upshot is that I would like three online news stories from 2006 to be removed, because I have proven that they offend the BBC’s editorial guidelines on accuracy, balance and/or impartiality. I simply do not understand why [NAME REDACTED] fails to understand the basic issue involved that (a) I have never been a stalker, (b) I have a Police National Computer check which proves this. The BBC running these stories so many years down the line is very damaging to me both professionally and personally (they are instantly Google-able). I (and senior lawyers) feel that they are indeed defamatory, but I see no reason why the BBC cannot remove them after having admitted their faults as regards their own Charter and editorial policy.

My hearing has been scheduled for 21st July 2010. Finally, I should explain that the purpose of my letter is to explain to the Chairman of the BBC Trust fully the hurt that I have experienced over this protracted complaint, and just in case Fran O’Brien is unable to bring this to the meeting due to any summer vacation. This does matter a huge amount to me. I have opened up this can of worms, as I can tolerate such abusive behaviour from the BBC any longer.

I am still deeply disturbed that anyone reading these three ‘entertainment’ stories will come away with the idea that I was a nuisance stalker (not true), rather than a very sick doctor with alcoholism who needed to help and who needed to be removed from the register (true). This should have been priority for any decent journalist covering the story legitimately.

I clearly feel that the articles are in stark contrast with the professionalism that the BBC is supposed to stand up for, and I would like the BBC Trust to give this careful thought. In particular, I should like the BBC to consider how it can liaise with the Law Society or the General Medical Council to cover their cases in such a way it cannot prejudice the hearings.

I take solace, in fact, from the fact that [NAME REDACTED], Legal Advisor to the BBC, feels that my complaint is not legal, in that I feel that resolution by the BBC Trust is entirely appropriate.

I will always abide by what you judgment the BBC Trust provides, but I hope that the Trust can consider my distress sympathetically. Finally, I will always be proud of the BBC.

Yours sincerely

Dr Shibley Rahman (mobile [redacted])

E-mail: management@lawandmedicine.co.uk
Queen’s Scholar
BA(1st) MA MB BChir PhD (all Cambridge) MRCP(UK)
LLB(Hons.) FRSA MSB
Master of Law student at the College of Law of England and Wales
Associate Member of the Institute of Directors
Company Director of Law and Medicine Limited