BBC head of religion hits back at BC/AD ban claimsThis is the first I've heard of this controversy. In my technical work I always use BCE and CE as the more neutral terms, but in popular presentations, such as the radio interview a week ago, I usually say BC and AD, since a lot of people don't know what BCE and CE mean. The BBC policy as explained by Mr. Ahmed seems reasonable to me.
Aaqil Ahmed: story by "people seeking to make mischief" is "simply wrong"
Written By
Jack Seale (Radio Times)
9:30 AM, 02 October 2011
Aaqil Ahmed, the BBC's head of religion and ethics, has responded strongly to reports that the Corporation has banned the terms BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini). Last weekend it was claimed that BC and AD had been replaced across the BBC's output by the modern, secular terms BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era).
"The story was quite simply wrong," Ahmed wrote on the About the BBC blog. "We have issued no editorial guidelines or instructions to suggest that anyone in the BBC should change the terms they use."
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UPDATE (4 October): Here is the Daily Mail article that seems to have started up (or at least intensified) the controversy: BBC turns its back on year of Our Lord: 2,000 years of Christianity jettisoned for politically correct 'Common Era'.