Tim Sheahan, Printweek.com 15 July 2011-07-19

Door-drop marketing company Link Direct has demanded a right to reply from the BBC following its recent Panorama programme, Why Hate Junk Mail?, as the direct mail backlash to the show continues.

The BBC One programme has come under fire from all corners of the direct mail and print industry with many commentators arguing that it “confused matters” between so-called junk mail and fraudulent scam mail.

Chris Roxburgh, a director of Birkenhead=based Link Direct has now written to the BBC director general Mark Thompson stating that the July 4 programme misrepresented the industry.

He said: “This programme was fundamentally flawed, clumsy, ill-informed and unbalanced.
Roxburgh went on to argue that Panorama made a “damaging misjudgement” by focusing on junk mail during an investigation of scam mail.

“Our sector has nothing whatsoever to do with the scam mail and it is outlandish and deeply damaging to us that we were connected with this criminal activity,” he said.