a nother letter to the BBC: Dear Sir/ Madam, The BBC has always been a great British institution and a model of effective, honest, impartial journalism. During the BBC coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza the BBC as worldwide position has been under sever scrutiny due to some (or many) inaccurate reporting. Over the last three weeks I have seen some good reporting and interviews, namely on NewsNight, but a lot of bad reporting that left in shock. I would like to refer to two specific incidents, which are not isolated, to elaborate my point of view about the disgraceful BBC reporting of the conflict. Yesterday, 28th of July, at 11:13am the BBC reported this through the BBC Breaking News twitter account: “Blast killing at least 7 in a Gaza park caused by misfiring Hamas rocket- Israel Defense Forces tell BBC bbc.in/1nRjeER This shows lack of impartiality but giving one side of the story as if it is the truth, also questions the BBC journalistic methodology in getting and publishing news stories. This story was later retrieved by the BBC, but without explanation or correction. But the impression it left that the BBC is now acting as it is the official spokesperson for the IDF, Are You? Same thing happened later when the BBC reported the bombing of a hospital in Gaza, I would quote professor Ilan Pappe the British Israeli historian referring to the news story: “Tonight the BBC has really turned into an arm of Israel’s embassy. Please bombard it with email, letters and phones. There must be a limit. It adopted the Israeli lies about the Shifa hospital being hit by Hamas rocket. Every other reporter collected enough evidence about the Israeli drone firing the rockets. At least state that there are two narratives. This one sided support has turned the BBC into a joke. Please people let them hear it from you in every possible way!” Again, BBC is publishing and broadcasting the IDF messages without questioning or highlighting such statements as “allegations” or “claims” not the Truth. I am not a journalist, but I can refer you to the NBC coverage (Twitter feed) of the story and you might learn something: “UPDATE: IDF says air strike that hit near Gaza hospital was not Israeli; NBC News journalists witnessing the bombing said it was Israeli drone.” I find it shameful that the oldest and biggest media corporation in the world that lead the way for decades in exploring and finding the truth is failing drastically in basic news reporting. It is sad to see the creditability of the BBC questioned by its wide audience, we have witnessed many large and small protests taking place outside the BBC centres around the UK and now we are seeing a lot of widely respected intellectuals criticising the BBC. I hope the BBC can address these issues and learn from these mistakes. Regards Ahmad Baker my blog: ahmadbaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/bias-on-bbc.html
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 14:03:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015