Road accident deaths drop by 50% in Saudi Arabia    SR 3.95 million fines for 3 employees of a company and 6-month jail for one for violating Capital Market Law    Qassim emir launches 52 health projects costing a total of SR456 million    BD and INS partner to elevate standards of infusion care in MENAT    Dubai Design Week launches its 10th edition, celebrating creativity and innovation    GASTAT: Passengers of public transport bus and train soar 176% and 33% respectively in 2023    Fakeeh Care Group reports 9M-2024 net profit of SR195.3 million, up 49% y-o-y driven by solid revenue growth and robust profitability    Italy's 'Libra' to arrive in Albania with just eight migrants on board    South Africa shuts border crossing with Mozambique over poll unrest    French families sue TikTok over harmful content that allegedly led to suicides    Harris tells supporters 'never give up' and urges peaceful transfer of power    HRT does not impact life expectancy — UK health body    Liam Payne's body to be flown back to the UK    Suspect arrested for banking fraud totaling SR493 million as Nazaha pursues corruption charges    Arab leaders and heads of state congratulate US President-elect Donald Trump    Neymar suffers muscle tear, out for 4-6 weeks    Crown Prince hails Saudi medical team that performed world's first fully robotic heart transplant    Al Nassr secures 5-1 victory over Al Ain to edge closer to knockout stage    Al Ahli extends perfect start with 5-1 victory over Al Shorta    Mitrovic's hat-trick leads Al Hilal to 3-0 victory over Esteghlal    India puts blockbuster Pakistani film on hold    The Vikings and the Islamic world    Filipino pilgrim's incredible evolution from an enemy of Islam to its staunch advocate    Muted Eid celebrations for millions of Nigerian Muslims    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Book alleges BBC pro-Israel bias
SUSANNAH TARBUSH
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 05 - 06 - 2011

The BBC has always prided itself on the supposed impartiality, accuracy and fairness of its output. As the British public service broadcaster, funded primarily through the license fee, it has a particular responsibility to abide by these principles. But its coverage of the Palestine-Israel issue has over the years led to challenges from both sides as regards impartiality.
Now the BBC is facing renewed allegations that its coverage of the Palestine-Israel issue is biased towards Israel. One reason for this is the publication by London publisher Pluto Press of the book “More Bad News from Israel” by Professor Greg Philo, Research Director of the Glasgow University Media Group, and Mike Berry, lecturer in the faculty of Arts, University of Nottingham.
The first part of this meaty book of nearly 400 pages explains the contested histories of the conflict. There are then detailed and systematic studies of media content and of audiences. The authors write: “While the broadcast media give a clear account of the Israeli perspective on this conflict, many journalists and especially in the BBC find great difficulty in doing the same for the Palestinians.”
The book is an updated version of the authors' 2004 book “Bad News from Israel” which analyzed media content and audience responses in the period from 2000 (when the second intifada began) to 2002. The updated book has new chapters on the 2008-2009 Gaza war and on the Israeli attack of May 2010 on the Gaza flotilla, in which a number of activists were killed.
Philo and Berry maintain that it is in the area of reasons for the violence that the Israeli perspective has been allowed by broadcasters to achieve and sustain a prominence. “The Palestinian view is often simply absent and this has clear impacts on audience belief,” they write. The authors say they are not asking for journalists to favor one group or the other but only to give an accurate account of the perspectives of both sides. Other broadcasters such as Channel 4 News have apparently much less of a problem with this. ”So the question remains, why is some BBC news still so partial?” One factor is the pro-Israel lobby – including organizations such as the British Israel Communications and Research Center (Bicom) – and the power of Israeli public relations.
There have been two launches of the book in London, the first at the School of Oriental Studies (SOAS), addressed by Philo and by the legendary campaigning Australian filmmaker and journalist John Pilger. Pilger's latest film, “The War You Don't See”, is critical of the ways in which the mainstream media reports on Afghanistan, Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
The second London launch of the book was at Amnesty International's Human Rights Action Center. Appearing alongside Philo were former BBC journalists coveriing the Middle East, Tim Llewellyn, and the Gaza-born Palestinian Editor-in-Chief of Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper Abdel Bari Atwan. The launch was chaired by Victoria Brittain, former associate foreign editor of the Guardian newspaper. At the SOAS launch, Philo described how after the first book was published, he was invited to address BBC news and current affairs editors on its contents. A number of BBC editors and journalists told him of the intense pressures they are under regarding coverage of Israel. “It is not that BBC journalists do not know exactly what is happening in Israel, but they are working within an iron-clad system of what they understand can be said,” Philo said. One editor said he and his colleagues wait in fear of telephone calls of complaint from the Israelis.
One very senior Middle East journalist and correspondent told him that in the BBC coverage of the Palestinians, “what is missing is the notion that here is an occupied people, a people who are trying to throw off a military occupation”.
Developments in broadcasting technology mean that devastating images of war and human carnage can be brought immediately to the home by TV or the Internet. “The response of Israel was to develop the most sophisticated approach to international publicity and public relations that we have yet seen,” Philo said. A first move was to set up the National Information Directorate.
During the Gaza war, the National Information Directorate made sure that everyone “spoke the same message with the same words”. The words can be found in the Israel Project's Global Language Dictionary, compiled by Dr Frank Luntz, which helps official spokesmen and others “communicate effectively in support of Israel” by, for example, advising them on “words that work” and “words that do not work”. Philo says analysis has shown that recommended “words that work” were often exactly paralleled by the content of TV news.
It is not only the BBC's news and current affairs broadcasts that are giving rise to current claims of a bias in favor of Israel. Its youth music content is also under scrutiny. There is the extraordinary case of the word “Palestine” being censored from a freestyle performance by rapper MiC Righteous in the program “Hip Hop Mix with Charlie Sloth” on black music network BBC Radio 1Xtra. As the video of the performance posted on the station's website shows, when MiC Righteous raps “I still have the same beliefs, I can scream Free Palestine”, a shattered glass sound effect after the first syllable of “Palestine” obliterates the rest of the word. This censorship has triggered a furious reaction, including in comments on the radio website. A letter published in the Guardian, signed by 18 prominent individuals, condemned “in the strongest possible terms”, the BBC's censorship of the word ‘Palestine'. “As artists, academics, lawyers and parliamentarians, we oppose this attack on the principle of free speech and on the freedom of artists to express political viewpoints through art,” stated the letter. The BBC's response is that “all BBC programs have a responsibility to be impartial when dealing with controversial subjects and an edit was made to the artist's freestyle to ensure that impartiality was maintained”.
Activist Jody McIntyre, in a blog for the Independent newspaper, asserted that the MiC Righteous controversy had “opened a can of worms the BBC cannot ignore for very much longer”. He pointed out that in another freestyle performance, in the same Radio 1Xtra slot, the BBC had censored the words “Gaza Strip” from the performance of the rapper Bigz. In Charlie Sloth's reposting of the Bigz performance on YouTube however, the phrase has been restored and commenters have thanked Sloth for this.


Clic here to read the story from its source.