The latest deaths followed the killing in early March of over 120
Palestinians under a massive Israeli assault on Gaza. (See our Media
Alerts: '
Israel's Illegal Assault on the Gaza "Prison"', March 3, 2008,and '
Israeli Deaths Matter More', March 11, 2008,)
One
of last week's dead was a Reuters cameraman, a 23-year-old Palestinian,
killed by a shell fired from an Israeli tank he was filming. Few
details emerged of the other numerous victims of Israeli violence.
Media Lens emailed Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East editor:
"In
the BBC's recent reports about the violence in Gaza, the only victim of
Israeli firepower that I can recall the BBC naming is Fadel Shana, the
Reuters cameraman.
"As you know, 22 people were killed, 5 of
whom were children. Why are their names not provided by the BBC? Where
are the further details that tell us something about them as
individuals? Where are the interviews with their grieving families?
"If logistical problems make it difficult to do this, shouldn't you explain this clearly and prominently to your audience?
"Surely
if 5 Israeli children had been killed, the BBC's news coverage would
have been significantly different." (Email, April 17, 2008)
Bowen responded on the same day:
"You
imply that we have double standards in marking the deaths of
Palestinian and Israeli children. I can assure you that we do not.
"After
twenty years of reporting wars I believe strongly that it is important
to humanise the victims. But we cannot broadcast long roll calls of the
dead. News is often about death. If we read out the name of everyone
whose death we covered, we would have no room for anything else,
including a proper explanation of how and why they died.
"Our
coverage yesterday did that I thought excellently. Paul Wood's piece on
the Ten O'Clock news was particularly strong, though the work of all
the staff in our Jerusalem bureau, supported by our Palestinian staff
in Gaza stood out.
"There were no interviews yesterday with
grieving families because as the death of the Reuters cameraman showed,
it was very dangerous to move around. They may well surface in the next
few days. Very little video came out of Gaza yesterday. In a piece I
did the night before last I interviewed the father of an 11 year old
boy, Riad al Uwasi from al Burej camp, who was killed last week. When
he was killed it was impossible to get to al Burej, which is where the
Reuters cameraman died. When things were calmer, it became possible,
until the next incursion." (Email, April 17, 2008)
We replied the following day:
"Many
thanks for responding. I appreciate your remark that 'it is important
to humanise the victims.' Your response, however, tacitly acknowledges
that you cannot do this so readily for Palestinian victims of deadly
Israeli force.
"Justifiable concerns for the safety of BBC staff
severely constrain timely and extensive coverage from the scene of
Israeli attacks, or their aftermath. And so we hear too little from
bystanders and grieving families, or Palestinian spokespeople. Compare
and contrast with the headline BBC coverage of attacks on Israelis,
such as the recent shooting at the Merkaz Herav Yeshiva in Jerusalem
[See our March 11 Media Alert]. Your Middle East webpages are full of
reports, analyses and commentaries on that single event alone.
"Five
Palestinian children in Gaza have just been killed by Israeli forces.
How has the BBC's recent coverage 'humanised' these young victims?
Where are the interviews with those on the receiving end of
overwhelming Israeli firepower? You say such interviews 'may well
surface in the next few days.' I hope so. But sadly, the record shows
that this is not the norm in BBC reporting.
"Instead, the record
shows that the BBC does a poor job of reflecting the huge
disproportionality of killings, violence and force under Israel's
military occupation. As of March 13, 2008, 1,033 Israelis and at least
4,604 Palestinians [had] been killed since September 29, 2000. The
ratio of more than 4 Palestinians killed for every Israeli is even more
stark when we look at the number of children killed: more than 9
Palestinian children for every Israeli child
(http://www.ifamericansknew.org/)
"The extent of relative media
coverage to both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian 'conflict' does not
have to reflect exactly these tragic statistics. Nor does the BBC
viewer require endless reminders of the vast US financial, military,
diplomatic and other aid to Israel. Nor do we need to hear again and
again the array of UN resolutions targeted at Israel over 60 years
[since its founding in 1948], and routinely ignored by that state. But,
certainly, the BBC audience would have a hard time finding such salient
facts in your reporting. And yet, you promise 'a proper explanation of
how and why they [the victims] died'."
We then quoted Glasgow
University media analysts Greg Philo and Mike Berry who noted, on the
basis of extensive research of media coverage of Israel-Palestine:
"The
emphasis here is on 'hot' live action and the immediacy of the report
rather than any explanation of the underlying causes of the events. One
BBC journalist who had reported on this conflict told us that his own
editor had said to him that they did not want 'explainers' - as he put
it: 'It's all bang bang stuff.' The driving force behind such news is
to hold the attention of as many viewers as possible, but in practice,
as we will see, it simply leaves very many people confused." (Philo and
Berry, 'Bad News From Israel', Pluto Books, London, 2004, p. 102)
Israeli Perspective Routinely Highlighted
We
invited Professor Philo to comment directly on our exchange with Jeremy
Bowen; in particular, on Bowen's assertion that the BBC is even-handed
in its coverage of Israeli and Palestinian victims. In response, Philo
pointed to the findings of 'Bad News From Israel':
"[T]he focus
on Israeli victims, both in terms of the quantity of coverage and the
language used to describe them, led some viewers to believe wrongly
that the Israelis had the most casualties and these beliefs were
attributed directly to what they had seen on television." (Email, April
18, 2008)
In fact, as we saw above, there have been over four
times as many Palestinian as Israeli deaths between September 2000 and
March 2008. And the ratio is as high as nine when it comes to
children's deaths. It is highly doubtful whether 'consumers' of
corporate news media, the BBC included, are aware of this.
The
Glasgow University study also cited an unnamed "very experienced"
Middle East BBC correspondent who noted "the difficulties of movement
applied to media teams trying to reach Palestinian areas." This is an
important point implicitly conceded by Bowen in his reply to us above.
This limitation is bound to affect media coverage. As Philo and Berry
warned:
"This cannot be an acceptable situation for a publicly
accountable broadcasting corporation that is committed to impartiality.
Broadcasters cannot absolve themselves from the requirement for balance
by accepting a status quo in which one side can ensure that it receives
more favourable treatment by imposing restrictions on the other. The
broadcasters really have to devote the necessary resources to make sure
that both sides are properly represented." (Philo and Berry, op. cit.,
p. 137)
Their careful research concluded that news headlines
"highlight Israeli statements, actions or perspectives." Palestinian
views do appear in the media "but tend to be buried deep in the text of
news bulletins. [...] it is hard to avoid the conclusion that one view
of the conflict is being prioritised." (Ibid., p. 144)
Put more
explicitly, it is "the Israeli perspective [which] is highlighted in
terms of causes, motives and preferred outcomes." (Ibid., p. 166).
Moreover, Philo and Berry point to "a continued emphasis on Israeli
deaths and injuries, both in terms of the amount of coverage which they
receive and the consistently detailed accounts which are given of
them." (Ibid., p. 184). This is a pattern that persists to the present
day.
Jonathan Cook, an independent journalist (www.jkcook.net)
whose honest and incisive reporting from Israel puts the corporate
media to shame, told us:
"It is a terrible irony that, precisely
because Israel has created an environment in the occupied territories
in which it can unleash so much violence so unpredictably, journalists
are increasingly fearful of venturing there to tell the human stories
of the Palestinian casualties behind the simple numbers. It is, of
course, equally ironic that, because life inside Israel is relatively
safe, journalists can easily humanise the stories of the far smaller
number of Israeli casualties. Unfortunately, Bowen and most other
journalists fail to appreciate this irony or to act in useful ways to
counter its effects on their reporting.
"When Bowen tells us
that 'we cannot broadcast long roll calls of the dead', he's implicitly
accepting a set of news priorities that mean the more Palestinians
killed the less importance their deaths have to news organisations like
his. Conversely, the fewer Israelis killed the more seriousness their
deaths are accorded." (Email to Media Lens, April 21, 2008)
Israelis Are 'People Like Us'
We
contacted Tim Llewellyn, a former BBC Middle East correspondent, for
his view. He praised Jeremy Bowen's impact on the BBC's performance:
"My
view of the BBC's Israel/Palestine coverage has changed a little, and
mainly because Jeremy Bowen's presence on the ground and in London has
brought some sense and balance to the operation. The standard of
reporting from Palestine has also improved in the past couple of years
or so, since Jeremy took over and especially since the departure of
James Reynolds."
He added:
"Jeremy has some licence from
the BBC, and its trillion on-line producers, managers and editors,
because of his knowledge, authority and status, which he has built up
as both a Middle East afficionado and broadcasting professional over
the past twenty years. He has taken the trouble to do his homework and
get into the region."
Llewellyn, however, pointed to the deep constraints that preclude fair and balanced reporting:
"The problem [of bias] is not with him and cannot be dealt with within his aegis."
Llewellyn explained:
"Editors,
producers, presenters, and their immediate bosses, live in the heated
climate of London and very much still within their own cultural
heritage: the politics of the day plus the memories of an English
education. [...] the story 'concept' in London is still, I am afraid,
that Israelis are 'people like us', who should not be shelled every day
while they drive their Polos to recognisable branches of Asda or
whatever; while Arabs are 'tricky' and 'emotional' and if they weren't
all firing rockets and hating Jews in the first place none of this
would be happening. This is still the platform off which most Western
journalists in London jump. To take a different tack is to run into
that wall of 'anti-semitic' or 'unbalanced' reportage that any of us
who tries to explain the facts on the ground in the region runs into."
John
Pilger is one journalist has been on the receiving end of such flak in
his extensive reporting on Palestine over several decades. His
award-winning 2002 television documentary, '
Palestine is Still the
Issue', is one of his most powerful, and most watched, films on the
crisis.
We
sent Pilger our exchange with the BBC's Middle East editor,
highlighting Bowen's assertion that "You imply that we have double
standards in marking the deaths of Palestinian and Israeli children. I
can assure you that we do not." Pilger replied:
"Jeremy Bowen's
quote is indefensible. One only has to read the acclaimed study, 'Bad
News from Israel', to understand the difference in the reporting of the
humanity of Israelis and Palestinians. However, Bowen himself has been
an able and brave reporter -- I acknowledged this in 'Hidden Agendas'
(pages 47 & 50)."
Pilger then recounted an example of the
BBC's institutional bias that systematically suppresses uncomfortably
honest perspectives:
"A few years ago, [Bowen] invited me to
take part in a BBC special about war correspondents, and we spent an
enjoyable hour or so 'in conversation'. Although it was clear that
tales of derring-do would have been preferred, I raised the unwelcome
subject that the BBC was an extension and voice of the established
order in Britain and its reporting on the Middle East and elsewhere
reflected the prevailing wisdom -- with honourable exceptions from time
to time. My contribution was cut entirely from the programme. I emailed
Bowen and someetime later received an unsatisafactory response that
there wasn't 'time or space' in the film -- something unsurprising like
that. Censorship by omission is standard, if undeclared practice."
(Email, April 18, 2008)
Regular readers of our alerts will be
familiar with the corporate media claim that lack of 'time' or 'space'
somehow 'explains' the regular omission of honest reporting and
critical analysis.
As a result of this undeclared media
censorship, public understanding of the Middle East remains limited;
and challenges to Western support of brutal Israeli policy are easily
diffused and minimised. Sadly, the net effect is that the BBC provides
cover for Israel's oppression of the Palestinians. This is a tragedy
that stretches back to the 'Nakba': the 'catastrophe' of ethnic
cleansing of the Palestinians which was the prerequisite for the
founding of the Israeli state in 1948. Now seems as good a time as any
to exert pressure on this publicly-funded institution to report painful
truths.
SUGGESTED ACTION
The goal of Media
Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and respect for others. If
you do write to journalists, we strongly urge you to maintain a polite,
non-aggressive and non-abusive tone.
Write to: Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East news editor
Email: jeremy.bowen@bbc.co.uk
Write to Helen Boaden, BBC news director
Email: helenboaden.complaints@bbc.co.uk
Please send a copy of your emails to us
Email: editor@medialens.org
Please do NOT reply to the email address from which this media alert originated. Please instead email us:
Email: editor@medialens.org
This media alert will shortly be
archived here.
The
Media Lens book 'Guardians of Power: The Myth Of The Liberal Media' by
David Edwards and David Cromwell (Pluto Books, London) was published in
2006. John Pilger described it as: "The most important book about
journalism I can remember." For further details, including reviews,
interviews and extracts, please
click here.
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