29.09.2010

Campaign to end BBC bias on Palestine

The BBC's shameful coverage of the attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla is a betrayal of its charter

On August 16 BBC Panorama’s ‘Death on the Med’ was, in its own words, ‘given unique access’ to the Israeli Naval Commandos, who attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, killing nine activists on the Mavi Marmara.^[1]

In return, the BBC broadcast what amounted to a half hour justification of the murder of nine aid workers and the wounding of 50 more aboard the flotilla on May 31. The victims of Israel’s murderous attack were portrayed as the ones guilty of violence. The BBC even broadcast a clearly faked clip, purporting to show activists from the Flotilla saying “go back to Auschwitz”. Even the IDF admitted on June 5th that this was not from the Mavi Marmara as originally claimed.^[2]

Whilst the world expressed incredulity at Israel’s claim that its commandos had acted in self defence, BBC news broadcast, without comment, Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that “Israel did all it could to avoid violence”.

BBC News 24 broadcast repeatedly and uncritically Israeli film “evidence” of their commandos being attacked despite its having edited out the initial lethal attack. This was both unethical and immoral, especially given that Israel’s military had stolen all photographic evidence to the contrary, recording equipment and the personal possessions of witnesses to Israel’s attack. The BBC’s behaviour is an invitation to other states to behave likewise.

Anyone relying on BBC news would not have heard world famous Swedish novelist Henning Mankell recount the beatings inflicted on activists after they were detained^[3]. They were also not shown the photographs smuggled past Israeli pirates showing activists giving medical treatment to Israel’s commandos.

Knowledge of Israel’s routinely violent attacks on Palestinians and peaceful protestors would have provided meaningful context to the attack on the flotilla, for example the blinding in one eye of American Jewish protestor Emily Henochowitz who was protesting the attack on the flotilla at the Qualandiya check-point in the occupied West Bank.^[4] Instead a BBC correspondent stated on May 31: “Of course the Israeli military is very well experienced at dealing with crowd control.”

If Iran or North Korea had carried out a lethal attack, in international waters, on a ship flying another country’s flag, can one imagine BBC broadcasting uncritical interviews with the killers?

The BBC’s behaviour reflects a consistently pro-Israeli bias in its coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. A report to the corporation’s governors in April 2006^[5] stated that “BBC coverage does not consistently constitute a full and fair account of the conflict but rather, in important respects, presents an incomplete and in that sense misleading picture.” The report noted that historical and other context was frequently absent and coverage failed to reflect “the fact that one side is in control and the other lives under occupation.” It also found that “the death of an Israeli killed by the Palestinian side was more likely to be reported by the BBC than the death of a Palestinian killed by the Israeli side.”

BBC’s news coverage consistently fails to present the context of events in its coverage. Why did Panorama not investigate the attack from the standpoint of those who were killed and injured instead of allowing itself to be bought off with ‘unique access’ to the killers? And why was Panorama’s ‘Death on the Med’ able to gain exclusive interviews with Israel’s naval commandos when the Israeli government had told the UN inquiry and its own Turkel Commission that they will not allow them to testify?

We wish to see the BBC stand up to threats from Israel instead of caving in, as occurred when the government of Ariel Sharon targeted correspondents Orla Guerin and Jeremy Bowen.^[6] Let us see no more of the blatant bias exhibited by the BBC’s refusal, in January 2009, to broadcast the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for Gaza.

Notes

news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/default.stm
tinyurl.com/2dvq6ph
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/02/gaza-flotilla-raid-gunfire-ship-blood
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/21/emily-henochowicz-israel-gaza-protest
www.bbcgovernorsarchive.co.uk/docs/reviews/panel_report_final.pdf
‘BBC says sorry to Israel’, The Guardian March 12 2005; ‘BBC appoints Middle East tsar’ The Guardian November 11 2003).

Please contribute

This advert has been paid for by subscribers to this advert. We wish to place more adverts in the press and we would ask you to help us to redress the bias against the Palestinians in the BBC’s coverage. Coverage paid for by all licence payers. Please make cheques out to J-Big and send to: The Campaign to End BBC Bias against the Palestinians, PO Box 164, Brighton BN1 7WB campaign_against_bbc_me_bias@yahoo.co.uk. This advert was submitted to The Independent on August 19 but they refused to carry it on political grounds.

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