As Israel pounds Gaza, BBC journalists accuse broadcaster of bias
JVL Introduction
Eight journalists, based in the UK have written a highly critical letter accusing their organisation, the BBC, of “double standard in how civilians are seen” both in relation to how the Ukraine conflict was reported and in different approaches when dealing with Israelis and Palestinians in the current war.
It is significant that they feel the need to remain anonymous. Furthermore they sent their letter to Al Jazeera, not the BBC itself, believing no useful dialogue to be possible with their employer.
A taster:
“For Israel’s bombardment to be considered ‘self-defence’, events must begin with the Hamas-led attack,” they said. “News updates and articles neglect to include a line or two of critical historical context – on 75 years of occupation, the Nakba, or the asymmetric death toll across decades.”
RK
This article was originally published by Al Jazeera on Thu 23 Nov 2023. Read the original here.
As Israel pounds Gaza, BBC journalists accuse broadcaster of bias
In the latest newsroom fallout over the war, BBC journalists say the corporation is failing to humanise Palestinians.
Loading article text…
Who are the released Israeli hostages? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67477240
BBC article right now, many of released hostages named and even photographs. Nothing about the Palestinian women and children hostages released, who will have been held in “administrative detention “ for far longer the Israeli hostages.
There is very little coverage of why the Palestinians were jailed. Also the narrative changed to Palestinian women and teenage boys. A subtle and deliberate change from women and children. Keep working for peace. Shalom.
Thank you for your honesty and hearing this from a Jewish wing has given me a glimmer of hope for humanity as it was dying
It would seem if you want to avoid censure for murder: use bombs.
Not just “bias” but an awful lot of superficiality explaining nothing of the context to the news items, the political and personal agendas of the various key players and to what degree the claims made by influential figures are corroborated by objective evidence. And it’s not only the BBC coverage that fails to inform and educate us.
Most UK people base their understanding of world events on the news coverage provided by the national TV channels and by (even less objective?) social media. They’re being very badly short-changed, in my view.
For the first time in many years I watched a LOT of TV news last week and was both shocked and saddened by its lack of rigour. In an item about the hostage releases, for example, the NEWS coverage seemed limited to images of happy reunions of Israeli hostages and interviews with relatives still waiting. That was it.
There was no mention of the resistance put up by Netanyahu’s government to a hostage deal which was offered by Hamas 5 weeks ago. There were no explanations of how much pressure the families had had to put on their own government to get the politicians to sign up to the deal. There was no attempt to assess how much the whole episode had damaged Netanyahu within Israel and what its consequences might be in the near future for the survival of his prime ministership and government. And almost zilch coverage of the Palestinian children and women prisoners.
Sean: it’s BBC style ‘balance’. The following has been said in essence over and over by JVL, but it must be true that to publicise details of each of the about 9,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, some without charge or trial or knowing what they are supposed to have done, in the same detail as we hear and see about the remaining hostages held by Hamas (about 180?) and those released, would take up all BBC news bulletins for the next year or more.