Saturday 29 May 2010

BBC still silent on Gaza Flotilla

It's now Saturday morning, 29 May, the Gaza aid flotilla - follow its progress here - has encountered dark restrictions from the Cypriot authorities, there's been an intensification of threats from Israel - notably Avigdor Lieberman - to attack the boats and the situation has become increasingly tense as international statements of support for the convoy build and the activists vow to break the siege in order to deliver their valuable cargo.

And guess what? There's still not a word on the issue and all these crucial developments from the BBC.

Despite rolling reports now from other international media like Al Jazeera, the New York Times, Reuters, AFP, the Guardian, Independent, Irish Times and Haaretz, the BBC's News Online page remains completely silent on this major story.

Isn't it astonishing disgrace? Leaving aside the blatant bias by selective omission, what does this say about the standing of the BBC as a principal news dispensing body?

My complaint letter, yesterday, to BBC Online also remains unanswered.

Did we ever need any more proof of the BBC's 'journalistic' and editorial complicity in Palestinian suffering?

Today, people will visit our Palestine human rights stall. And we'll tell them about the flotilla and all these mendacious efforts to stop it. And they will be appalled and saddened. And they'll probably say, "but we didn't hear anything about all this on the news." And they might well ask, "why wasn't it reported by the BBC?"

Questions of vital importance for the BBC to answer. If only they had the self-inspecting honesty and journalistic integrity to do so.

John

* This statement of complaint has also been submitted to BBC Online.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

John,

I don't know if anyone's ever asked you this question, but what exactly do you think the BBC gets out of being biased one way or another? Having experience of working within the arena of complaints (at the BBC and elsewhere), getting to watch news report after news report, dealing with endless complaints from people suggesting bias towards Israel, bias against Israel, bias towards the Palestinian peoples, bias against the Palestinian peoples, I'm just wondering if your own personal views are blinding your viewing and reading of BBC News reports? It seems that from reading the endless correspondence you have on these pages with various BBC representatives, you'll never be happy until everyone agrees with your own views. Have you ever considered that, however well intention your views are (and I do agree that Israel's actions are abhorrent on the majority of occasions) there comes a time to accept that you're simply wrong in what you believe about the BBC?

I've seen many people become obsessed with making complaints to the BBC on a variety of subjects. Everyone's got their pet hates, but it's worrying to me that you seem to have been doing this for an extended period of time. I fear that it's now a personal crusade, you versus the BBC, and that you've lost sight of helping others. Is it all about you, really?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for alerting us to this situation, John..

Brian

John Hilley said...

Thanks Anonymous

I've posted some thoughts at the next post up:

http://johnhilley.blogspot.com/2010/05/readers-challenge-and-concern.html

Thanks, also, Brian.

John

Anonymous said...

BBC is a bias media...hide the truth policy of BBC...

asif