Not very appealing

The appeal for the Disasters Emergency Committee goes out on Channel 4, ITV and Channel Five tonight. Before the televising, a mere £600,000 had been raised. The TV appeal would normally be expected to raise about £5m (Congo raised £6.2m last month).

But we may soon get a sense of whether the political row over this appeal has any effect on the amount of money raised – one way or the other – and whether there is a public appetite to donate.

We now know that Sky News, like the BBC, will not be showing the appeal. On tonight’s Channel 4 News we will be looking at whether this row will contaminate future DEC appeals, which have historically tried to stay above politics and seek out a humanitarian consensus.

And we set this in the context of a battle to channel aid to the Palestinians featuring not just the charities who make up the DEC, but also the EU, the Iranians, the Saudis and others. Influence is at stake as well as lives.