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BBC war propagandists twanged on F14

not Manchester Uni | 17.02.2003 12:52

Auntie is silent on ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, DU, and Turkish bombing of the Kurds. On Valentine's Day 60 demonstrators entered Bush (sic!) House in central London to register a complaint with the BBC.

At about 8pm on Friday 60 protesters from Manchester University and the Central London Peace group burst into BBC Bush House on Kingsway, home to World Service radio. Placards were secured to the railings, reading 'Lies cost lives' and 'Voice of Empire', and factual leaflets were distributed to the public, and also to employees. The team was able to range widely inside the building, at one point reaching the top floor.

The reaction of many BBC workers was positive and supportive, although one female seemed quite irate, and stated that the World Service was far less biased than other sections of the Beeb.

After about an hour the demonstration moved back out to the pavement, where about 10 police were now in attendance. The debate with the BBC's Ms 'Look, Jenin was not a massacre' continued, despite police attempts to make her leave the protestors alone.

Having stated their case, and showed solidarity to those within the Beeb trying to get the truth out the party left and joined with the occupation at SOAS.

not Manchester Uni

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Auntie not anti-war or anti-system

17.02.2003 13:43

I worked for the BBC from 1989 to 1998. The kind of behaviour described above is not a surprise. In theory the BBC is "impartial" but it is dependent on the UK government in various ways, including in matters of finance. Besides the licence fee, at least some parts of the BBC receive a "grant in aid" from the government. The World Service and BBC Monitoring which is subordinate to it are among the recipients of this. BBC Monitoring is also linked to the US Foreign Broadcast Information Service, which is part of the CIA. None of this is likely to make the BBC take a principled stand on foreign policy. In any case, "impartiality" is often a pretext for cowardice.
In my time, quite a few BBC staff members thought Channel Four news was more objective than the BBC's output.

Steve

Steve


opportunity missed

19.02.2003 20:09

opportunity missed
opportunity missed

Guardian ran a piece by Matt Wells on last Friday's Bush house invasion
 http://media.guardian.co.uk/radio/story/0,12636,897591,00.html

Which appeared on indymedia too
 http://uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54152&group=webcast
 http://uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54271&group=webcast

But I just spoke to Matt Wells - he tried to find out what it was all about but couldn't - only managed to get rumours from Bush hoose staff - and BBC press office refused to explain anything what the protest was about - Matt admitted he bumped up the terrorism side of it because of the timing but genuinely didn't know what the point of it all was.

I don't want to appear too critical but it highlights the necessity to press release and/or have someone doing press work with actions like this.
Looks like a reel chance to get the word out has been missed and the BBC press office spin surgeons will be delighted.

Tony


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Tony Gosling
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