[Peace-discuss] BBC bias

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Disappointment for those who hold that we can escape the narrow and 
propagandistic US media by relying on, say, the BBC.  --CGE]

	The Times 	May 03, 2006
	BBC news 'favours Israel' at expense of Palestinian view
	By Dan Sabbagh, Media Editor

THE BBC’S coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict implicitly 
favours the Israeli side, a study for the BBC Governors has concluded.

Deaths of Israelis received greater coverage than Palestinian 
fatalities, while Israelis received more airtime on news and current 
affairs programmes. The references to “identifiable shortcomings” 
surprised BBC News executives, who are more used to accusations that 
their coverage is routinely anti-Israel.

Only “a small percentage of Palestinian fatalities were reported by BBC 
News”, the analysis, published yesterday, noted, while “the killing of 
more than one Israeli by Palestinians either by gun or bomb was reported 
on national broadcast programmes”.

At the same time, there was “little reporting of the difficulties faced 
by the Palestinians in their daily lives” and a “failure to convey 
adequately the disparity in the Israeli and Palestinian experience, 
reflecting the fact that one side is in control and the other side lives 
under occupation”.

Led by Sir Quentin Thomas, the president of the British Board of Film 
Classification, the Governors’ study group analysed a period between 
August 2005 and January this year in which 98 Palestinians were killed 
and there were up to 23 Israeli fatalities.

The findings were seized upon by pro-Palestinian groups. Chris Doyle, 
director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said: “When 
research consistently shows that fatalities from one side of a conflict 
— the party that has by far the least number — are more frequently 
covered, then this must raise alarm bells.”

However, the Thomas inquiry also argued that the BBC should be less 
cautious over its use of the the word “terrorism” because “that is the 
most accurate expression for actions which involve violence against 
randomly selected civilians”.

The panel relied on research by Loughborough University for its 
conclusions about the coverage of deaths in the conflict, as well as the 
calculation that more “talk time” was given to non-party political 
Israelis, thereby tipping the balance away from Palestinians.

The report focuses on news and current affairs output during the period 
when Orla Guerin was the BBC’s Middle East Correspondent and concluded 
that there was “little to suggest deliberate or systematic bias” in the 
coverage of the conflict. “On the contrary, there was evidence of a 
commitment to be fair, accurate and impartial,” it said.

Instead, to rectify the problems, journalists were advised not to always 
highlight events accompanied by dramatic pictures, but concentrate on 
in-depth items that would reflect “shifts in Palestinian society and 
politics”.

The Thomas panel also suggested that a senior editor be appointed to 
oversee coverage of the conflict as a whole.

Michael Grade, the Chairman of the Governors, said that he would ask 
news bosses to come back with their response to the report next month.

Sir Quentin said: “What the BBC does now is good for the most part; some 
of it very good. But it could and should do better to meet the gold 
standard which it sets itself.”
	
	Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.