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BBC protest - Portland Place

CLPG | 12.11.2004 21:58

A protest was held outside BBC HQ, Portland Place on the 10th November.

sign outside BBC HQ
sign outside BBC HQ

sign
sign


In their coverage of the US assault on Fallujah, BBC television news surpassed even their previous levels of one-sided and misleading reporting. US military statements were treated with a deference that editors of the Lancet could only dream of, Abu Ghraib and fictional WMD's were forgotten as viewers were left to guess what "fixing the problem of Fallujah" might entail.

Flyers were given to BBC staff, visitors and passers-by alike reading as follows -

"BBC lies on Fallujah

"Iraq's prime minister, Iyad Allawi, has said he has given American and Iraqi forces the authority to clear Fallujah of terrorists."
8/11/04 - BBC announces an assault on Fallujah which will include dropping clusters of Phosphorus bombs on civilian areas. These bombs are designed to cause fires and create untreatable burns.

As shown by MediaLens, the BBC failed to note that Allawi is not a legitimate Iraqi leader but a puppet installed by the Americans after an illegal invasion. He has no authority whatsoever over US forces in Iraq, they are the authority. Their goal is not to rid Fallujah of terrorists but to crush Iraqi resistance to US control of their country.

The BBC lies to disarm British public opinion against the Iraq war to allow the Western killing for profit to continue.

Don't let the them get away with it."

Response to the protest was mainly positive from both staff and passers-by. We met Gilad Atzmon and his band on their way out, having just finished recording a radio session. They said they'd managed to comment on the situation in Palestine on the programme (don't know if was going out live.) They wished us well and gave us a copy of their new CD.

We were surprised by the hostility to BBC news coverage that emerged as we spoke to people in the street, so perhaps the time is near when their aura of respectability will be broken.

CLPG

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

at last

12.11.2004 22:16

For far too long the Blair Broadcasting Corporarion have been giving the spin on Iraq, endless accounts of a dozen coalition casualties whilst not a mention of how many civillians have been murdered.

Try watching the news and count how many times they mention terror, terrorist and terrorism.

(A)


Spelling

14.11.2004 23:27

Can the friends of Indymedia please take care to spell the Prime Minister's name properly - Tony Bliar

Rupert


BBC bias

16.11.2004 11:21

There was a great bit of "balanced" journalism on the Today programme this morning (16/11/04). Major General Patrick Cordingley while expressing some regret at the NBC pool footage of an execution of a wounded man in Fallujah by a US Marine, tried to rationalise the execution as an act in the heat of battle, and furthermore that we should realise that the occupation forces are facing a fanatical enemy.

James Naughtie helpfully added that that executioner had himself been wounded the day before. So that's OK then.

Interesting how a people resisting foreign occupation are considered fanatical.

I also wonder what the reaction of Cordingley and Naughtie would have been if Al-Jazeera released footage of an wounded Black Watch soldier being executed.





Adam Shimali