The Home Office is to exercise editorial control over a series of BBC broadcasts to mark the UK's first Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27.

The arrangement, described by the Telegraph as "unusual", is revealed in correspondence between Armenian groups - angry that massacres of 1,500,000 by the Turks during 1915 - 1916 are not included in the commemoration - and the BBC.

The BBC producer making the programmes said: "The BBC have been invited to produce the official event on behalf of the Home Office, who have retained overall editorial control."

The BBC draw a distinction between editorial control during events such as Remembrance Day and decisions over what is broadcast. And the HO - in relation to the Armenian genocide question - said that the decision had been made to focus on the Nazi holocaust and more recent events in Rwanda and Bosnia.