Busting BBC Bias

BBC News attempt to associate racism with the Right, again

2006-05-26T17:31:00.000Z

In February I posted on BBC News’s attempt to associate neo-fascism and racism with the Right.

In Belgians march to honour victims one can read the following:

Thousands of people have joined an anti-racism march in Belgium following the killing of a woman of African origin and a two-year-old child.

…

The gunman had earlier shot and injured a woman of Turkish descent as she sat reading a book on a bench in the city centre.

The 18-year-old suspect, believed to be a right-wing extremist, was shot and wounded by police and remains under guard in hospital.

The BBC refers to the racist killer as “a right-wing extremist”, once again an unsubtle attempt to associate racism with the Right, when he should very obviously have been referred to as a “far right extremist” (following the common practice of placing left-of-centre racists on the far right).

BBC creates news in order to cast negative light on Catholic reaction to film

2006-04-16T12:49:00.000Z

The Roman Catholic prelature Opus Dei has written an open letter to Sony on the subject of the conversial Da Vinci Code film, a letter in which one can read the following:

Some of the media have specifically written that Sony is considering the possibility of including at the start of the film a disclaimer making it clear that this is a work of fiction, and that any resemblance to reality is pure coincidence. An eventual decision of Sony in this direction would be a sign of respect towards the figure of Jesus Christ, the history of the Church, and the religious beliefs of viewers.

Opus Dei has informed Sony that it considers that the inclusion at the start of the film of a disclaimer making it clear that it is a work of fiction “would be a sign of respect towards the figure of Jesus Christ, the history of the Church and the religious beliefs of viewers.”

How does BBC News title the story? Group demands Da Vinci disclaimer — yes, “demands”; the BBC states that, by informing Sony that it would appreciate a disclaimer at the start of the film, Opus Dei “demands” one. In the article, one can read:

Catholic group Opus Dei has asked for a disclaimer to be placed on the film of The Da Vinci Code, released next month.

The organisation said it had written to Sony Pictures executives in Japan to ask the studio to emphasise that the film was a work of fantasy.

As can be read in Opus Dei’s open letter, it is not asking for anything, merely telling Sony that it considers that a disclaimer at the start of the film emphasising that it is a work of fantasy would be a sign of respect to the Catholic faith. Quite conveniently, BBC News doesn’t link to the letter in question, so that it can freely spin the story as it wishes, most probably to create a parallel between the reaction of Catholics to The Da Vinci Code film and that of Muslims to the Muhammad cartoons.

BBC News attempts to pass Palestinian militant deaths off as civilian deaths

2006-04-13T16:15:00.000Z

In 'Israel to step up Gaza shelling', one can read the following:

She was the 16th Palestinian to die in Israeli air and artillery attacks on Gaza in the past four days.

A sentence much like the following (from memory) was removed from the article:

Israel says it will step up Gaza shelling despite the deaths of 16 Palestinians in the past four days.

The bias by omission is nothing less than outraging: BBC News wishes to have the reader believe that the 16 Palestinians killed were civilians, quite obviously, or it would state that of those 16 killed, 13 were militants:

Friday: six Palestinians killed, that is, five militants and a five-year-old human shield (total: five militants out of six killed)
Saturday: two gunmen killed as well as six other militants (total: 13 militants out of 14 killed)
Sunday: one Palestinian civilian killed (total: 13 militants out of 15 killed)
Monday: one Palestinian girl killed (total: 13 militants out of 16 killed)

I feel sorry for those who have to pay for this “news” service.

BBC News endorsement of illegal immigrants rights protestors

2006-04-11T15:54:00.000Z

Matt Frei’s diary on the subject was bad enough.

In Immigrants find strength in numbers, one can read the following endorsement of illegal immigrants rights protestors:

Anywhere else and you might have expected to see vast numbers of police.

[Image of protestors in Los Angeles, the caption of which is: “The protesters' slogans are inclusive and non-confrontational”]
But not here and not with these people.

It is downtown Los Angeles and once again thousands of Latinos have marched, in peace, to claim the right for illegal immigrants to stay here.

…

They do not want confrontation. Instead they want to influence politicians.

The protestors marched “in peace” (hitting one counter-demonstrator on the head doing so) and “do not want confrontation”, and their slogans are “inclusive and non-confrontational”. How lovely.

Santa Ana in Orange County is a more conservative place. Hispanics marched here as well but their numbers were in the hundreds, not thousands.

“A more conservative place”? Hispanics are right to be afraid of those conservative types; to which lengths could they go in order to impede protestors?

Bravely, some might say foolishly, one woman stepped up to confront them. It happened right in front of us.

…

When the woman had taken on everyone in sight the crowd duly booed her and moved off.

She was “duly” booed off — she got her comeuppance!

Of course, the puff piece also includes an example of those poor victims of the legal system, immigrants themselves:

It is drawing people like Freddie and Maria. Freddie lives here legally but Maria, his wife, does not.

They fear she will be deported at any time. She dreads separation from her husband and her two daughters.

They never leave the state of California, believing that crossing state lines puts them at risk of exposure.

They hardly go out. Freddie admits it is no way to live.

She could be deported at anytime and dreads separation from her two daughters and her husband, who “admits” that “it is no way to live”, all this because she has no rights as an illegal immigrant — darn American legal system!

As Peter Lanteri, director of New York’s chapter of the Minutemen, a volunteer border watch group, says: “Illegal is illegal, and they break our laws to come here”. Tell that to the BBC.

BBC News refers to Hamas retaliation threats without mentioning Hamas

2006-04-09T08:35:00.000Z

In Israeli shells 'kill Palestinian', one can read the following:

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reports that the country's security forces have gone on alert, after militant threats to retaliate for the deaths.

Which militants are threatening to retaliate for the deaths? None other than Hamas, the group leading the Palestinian Authority.

BBC News bias in reports on IDF killing of Palestinian terrorists

2006-04-08T12:16:00.000Z

In Israeli missile kills two in Gaza, one can read the following:

An Israeli missile has struck a car in Gaza City, killing at least two of its occupants and wounding two others, Palestinian officials say.

In the lead paragraph, there is no indication that those killed are militants.

The attack reportedly killed militants from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

Ynetnews has published a report on the attack, of which the introduction includes the following:

2 Palestinians killed, others injured – all members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades

There seems to be no doubt about the inclusion of those killed in the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, yet BBC News says that this is “reportedly” the case, as if Israel was covering up that it was not.

Palestinians often fire crude rockets into Israeli territory but these rarely cause any casualties.

Oh, well that’s alright then!

In Six killed in Israeli air strike, one can read the following:

Six Palestinians, including a child, have been killed in an Israeli air strike outside a militant training camp near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

The dead included a senior commander in the Popular Resistance Committees group and his young son.

Six Palestinians killed, one of them a militant and another a child — does that mean the four others were civilians? Not according to reports from, among others, Ynetnews, Haaretz, The Guardian and Ireland On-Line.

Also, why no BBC News reports on Hamas’s claim that Israel “will pay for its crimes”?

Archive of BBC-related news

2006-04-03T16:35:00.000Z

This is the archive of BBC-related news, which can be read in the sidebar, where items will be displayed for a week before being moved to this page in reverse chronological order.

April 2006

24/04/06: 47% against BBC subsidising switch to digital

23/04/06: Thousands Protest Brussels MP3 Murder. BBC Omits Facts

23/04/06: Viewers pay 8p a minute to moan at BBC

18/04/06: BBC climate change experiment cocked

18/04/06: BBC: Gays Better Under Hussein

10/04/06: AIDs group slams BBC gay “bug chaser” claims

08/04/06: Unashamedly, ridiculously pro-Chavez, anti-American BBC News report

05/04/06: Grade promises an end to BBC’s ‘cor - let’s do it’ culture

05/04/06: BBC plug anti-Christian show again! (Busting BBC Bias does not endorse the BNP’s views)

04/04/06: BNP expose BBC censorship (Busting BBC Bias does not endorse the BNP’s views)

02/04/06: How BBC education expert Miss Beckles messed up woman’s son

March 2006

31/03/06: Are we paying too much for the BBC?

29/03/06: Nigeria demands apology from BBC over Charles Taylor affair comment

29/03/06: Anger at BBC education expert

28/03/06: 211 complaints to BBC over gay EastEnders storyline

27/03/06: BBC spends £4m of licence money on art

27/03/06: BBC spent £23,000 on Christmas party

27/03/06: BBC Radio 4’s new announcer’s Jamaican accent controversial

BBC News omits race hate aspect of murder of White

2006-04-02T04:21:00.000Z

In Man charged over stabbing murder, one can read the following:

A man has been charged with the murder of a keen photographer on South Tyneside.

…

On Saturday, Northumbria Police charged Scott Trevor Nicholls, 20, of Borough Road, South Shields, with murder.

Mr Nicholls will appear at South Tyneside Magistrates Court on Monday.

Shortly after the killing three men were arrested on suspicion of murder and released on police bail. One of the men was re-arrested on Friday.

BBC News seems to have “forgotten” to mention a pivotal aspect of the story, which The Daily Telegraph refers to in the title of its article covering the story, Police re-arrest man over 'race hate' killing, the article from which the following excerpts are taken:

A man has been re-arrested over the suspected race hate killing of a photographer who was stabbed through the heart after leaving home to take pictures of snow-covered hills.

…

She added that detectives had not ruled out a racist motive as Lee and his mother had both made previous complaints of racial abuse outside their home in King George Road, South Shields.

As part of the murder inquiry detectives are investigating a number of alleged racial incidents at the family home where Lee lived with his 53-year-old mother Barbara Yusuf Porter, who is of Somali descent.

CCTV footage has shown youths walking past the home making inflammatory gestures and swastikas have previously been scrawled on the property.

Why does BBC News think that the suspected motive for the murder, race hate, isn’t worth reporting? Ah, of course, ethnic minorities can’t be racist, only Whites can!

BBC News omits Arla Foods apology in lifting of boycott

2006-03-31T04:24:00.000Z

In Cartoon row author rewrites Koran, one can read the following:

These developments come as a cartoon-related boycott of Danish-Swedish dairy giant Arla in the Middle East appears to be drawing to an end.

The company hopes to win back half of its market share by the end of the year, after religious leaders called for the boycott to be lifted.

Religious leaders only called for the boycott to be lifted after Arla Foods made their opposition to publication of the Muhammad cartoons clear!

BBC accused of medical quackery

2006-03-27T04:11:00.000Z

The BBC has been accused of medical quackery by scientists for series focusing on alternative medicine, The Sunday Times reports in Science accuses BBC of medical quackery, from which the following excerpts are taken:

SOME of Britain’s leading scientists have accused the BBC of “quackery” by misleading viewers in an attempt to exaggerate the power of alternative medicine.

…

The most serious accusation concerns the BBC’s presentation of the anaesthetic powers of acupuncture. A heart patient underwent surgery in a Chinese hospital with a number of acupuncture needles stuck into her body.

Critics say that the needles could be credited with little real effect because the patient was also receiving three powerful conventional sedatives — midazolam, droperidol and fentanyl — along with large volumes of local anaesthetic injected into her chest.

…

The series was viewed by 3.8m people and presented by Kathy Sykes, professor of public understanding of science at Bristol University. During the acupuncture episode, Sykes said: “We’ve got to be scientific and rigorous and plan it really carefully,” adding later: “The bit of the brain that helps us decide whether something is painful, we think perhaps is being affected by acupuncture.”

…

Lewith, an expert on the effects of acupuncture, said in an interview yesterday: “The experiment was not groundbreaking; its results were sensationalised. It was oversold and over-interpreted. Proper scientific qualifications that might suggest alternative interpretations of the data appear to have been edited out of the programme.”

…

He said he felt “abused” by the programme makers: “It was as if they had instructions from higher up that this had to be a happy story about complementary medicine without any complexity, and they used me to give a veneer of respectability.”

Ernst also said: “The BBC decided to do disturbingly simple story lines with disturbingly happy endings.”

Two other programmes in the series — discussing faith healing and herbalism — were also criticised.

“It was the programme on herbal medicines which really got me going most,” said Colquhoun. “It is as if evidence-based medicine and reason started to go out of fashion in the 1970s and 1980s and mysticism came in. We have to bring reason back.”“It was the programme on herbal medicines which really got me going most,” said Colquhoun. “It is as if evidence-based medicine and reason started to go out of fashion in the 1970s and 1980s and mysticism came in. We have to bring reason back.”

…

Despite the criticisms, the BBC is understood to be in the process of commissioning a further series.

BBC News editorial guideline change in references to Muhammad?

2006-03-25T12:33:00.000Z

In Free speech protest to be staged, one can read the following:

The protest has been organised in response to the uproar over cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which appeared in some European newspapers.

The Islamic prophet Muhammad is referred to as just that, “the Islamic prophet Muhammad” — a welcome change from “the Prophet Muhammad” or “the Prophet”, the first letter of the term invariably capitalised.

Could it be that the BBC News editors have modified the guideline, having understood that a little more than 97% of the United Kingdom’s population’s prophet isn’t Muhammad? Or is it simply a case of an article mentioning Muhammad written by a non-Muslim? I hope it is the former.

BBC News considers al-Qaeda a ‘militant network’

2006-03-22T04:33:00.000Z

In Palestinians 'in al-Qaeda plot', one can read the following:

It is the first time Israel has formally charged Palestinians with membership of the militant network.

The substitution of “terrorist group” for “militant network” is bad enough, but not referring to the group as an Islamist one is worse still (for al-Qaeda’s ultimate goal is to re-establish the Caliphate across the Islamic world, by overthrowing secular or Western-supported regimes).

BBC News omits religion of Muslim terror suspects (updated)

2006-03-21T15:53:00.000Z

In Seven 'planned terror campaign', one can read the following:

Seven British citizens had acquired "most of the necessary components" to launch a bombing campaign in the UK, the Old Bailey has heard.

…

The bomb, or bombs, would have been used "at the very least to destroy strategic plant within the United Kingdom, or more realistically to kill and injure citizens of the UK," he claimed.

…

Omar Khyam, 24, and his brother Shujah Mahmood, 19 - both from Crawley in West Sussex - each deny possessing aluminium powder.

Mr Khyam, Anthony Garcia (also known as Rahman Adam), 23, of Ilford, east London, and Nabeel Hussain, 20, of Horley, Surrey, each deny possession of the ammonium nitrate fertiliser.

The other accused are Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, Bedfordshire, and Waheed Mahmood, 34, and Jawad Akbar, 22, both from Crawley.

BBC News is happy to say that the accused are British citizens, but their religion is not touched on, despite it most probably being the incentive for the planification of attacks.

Update

The article has been updated with the following information:

Mr Waters said Mr Khyam's motive was clear: "The UK was unscathed, it needed to be hit because of its support for the US."

The prosecutor said Mr Khyam and co-defendant Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton in Bedfordshire, both told Babar they worked for a man named Abdul Hadi who they claimed was "number three in al-Qaeda".

Omar Khyam’s motive was that the UK “needed to be hit because of its support for the US [in the War on Terror, no doubt]” and he said that he worked for a man who he claimed was “number three in al-Qaeda”, and still the BBC does not use the words “Islam” or “Muslim”.

The BBC ‘signed huge agreement with Iran’s mullahs’

2006-03-21T04:19:00.000Z

Many thanks to the anonymous reader who found the story Iran's mullahs signed a huge agreement with BBC, in which one can read the following:

Iran will soon present its tourist attractions in a publicity campaign to be waged in the international and local television networks, said an official of Iran Cultural Heritage and Tourism Foundation (ICHTF) in Madrid Wednesday.

"The publicity campaign will be in the form of advertisements introducing cultural, historical and development attractions of Iran," said Deputy Head of ICHTF for Cultural and Communication Affairs Alireza Sajjadpour.

Talking to IRNA, he referred to BBC, CNN, Germany's ZDF, al-Jazeera and al-Arabia as the international TV networks selected for introducing the tourist sites.

"We have signed a huge agreement with BBC," he added. He, however, declined to cite the contracts' details.

Iran, we learn, is to present its tourist attractions in a publicity campaign in the form of advertisements, and the BBC is referred to — but the BBC sells no advertising, yet a “huge agreement” with it is cited.

What is the agreement in question? Why were no details given?

Most importantly, does this agreement undermine the BBC’s capacity to produce unbiased news reportage on Iran?

Given that the BBC itself has said nothing about a contract with Iran, one has to be careful in considering statements from the country and its media, statements which are sometimes outright lies.

BBC News’s John Simpson blind to pluses of Iraq invasion

2006-03-20T18:46:00.000Z

On the BBC News front page, the article Iraq invasion: For better or worse? is linked to with the following short description:

John Simpson on the pluses and minuses of the Iraq invasion

John Simpson reporting on the pluses as well as the minuses of the Iraq invasion? It must be too good to be true! It is.

Let’s see the pluses given by Simpson in the article:

But there's one unquestioned success for the coalition: every available wall has a tattered election poster on it. True, three months after the last election Iraq still has no government, but the old terror of authority has evaporated.

There are dozens of newspapers, plenty of television channels, and hundreds of thousands of satellite dishes: under Saddam Hussein, you could be jailed for having one.

…

Few Iraqis will even think about the anniversary of the invasion. Many are still glad that Saddam Hussein was taken off their backs.

Now let’s see the minuses touched on by Simpson:

The first thing that struck me about Baghdad when I saw it in April 2003, a few days after the fall of Saddam Hussein, was how poor it had become. I hadn't been allowed back there since 1991, after the first Gulf War.

The second thing I noticed was a real sense of foreboding, even among the people who greeted me effusively because they thought I was an American.

The streets of Baghdad were edgy and frightening, and they stank of sewage and uncollected rubbish.

I went to one of my favourite haunts, the ancient Mustansiriyah University beside the Tigris. There was a sudden outbreak of shooting across the river.

"Just people frightening off the looters," said my Iraqi producer. "But this is just the beginning of the trouble. You'll see."

Comforting thought

We stopped off at a shop I used to visit 12 years earlier. The owner was a clever, wary man from the Kurdish north who had never dared to criticise Saddam Hussein even when we had been alone.

"Thanks to God he is gone," said the shopkeeper now. "But you cannot expect to get rid of Saddam and find that everything is suddenly good. His mark will always be on this country."

Still, people did expect that things would slowly get better.

"At least," said a man I had known in the past, and who offered me a cup of sharp-tasting citrus tea, "the Americans will put us on our feet again".

It was a comforting thought. Things had been bad in Iraq throughout the period of UN sanctions: water shortages, power-cuts, inadequate hospitals, a collapsing transport system.

But it hasn't happened like that. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which ran the country under Paul Bremer, was almost ludicrously incompetent, wasting or misusing tens of millions of dollars.

Unknown amounts were stolen. In 2004 the CPA could not account for $9bn in Iraqi oil revenue.

Many Iraqis have been killed for failing to understand warnings

Despite the investment that has undoubtedly taken place, virtually all basic services are in a worse state now than they were before the invasion.

There is less clean water, less sewage control, less gas, less petrol, less power. Baghdad now has an average of only 5.8 hours of electricity a day. At present Iraq is producing 1.8 million barrels of oil a day; just before the invasion the figure was 2.5 million barrels a day.

Much of this isn't the fault of the coalition: power, water and oil are particular targets for the insurgents. But the failure of the coalition to protect these supplies makes people angry.

Whenever I drive through the streets of Baghdad now I am struck by the lack of building work.

Let me take you on a drive through the Baghdad streets. The first thing you'll notice is the traffic: one of the coalition's successes is the extent of car ownership, even if the shortage of fuel means there are queues half a mile long outside many petrol stations.

The second is the shops. They're full of goods nowadays, and plenty of people brave the possibility of car bombs to throng them.

Things are expensive and inflation is high. So is unemployment: perhaps above 50%. There is malnutrition, and the level of infant mortality is still disturbingly high. But in the cities, at any rate, most people seem to get by.

Abiding anger

What you don't see is building work. You would expect the capital city of a country which is undergoing a programme of major reconstruction to be full of cranes. It simply isn't happening. Baghdad is not being transformed; it's scarcely changed from the time of the first Gulf War, except for the buildings which the coalition bombed.

Building work is scarce: Baghdad is not being transformed

If you see a US patrol, you should brake sharply and keep away from it. The gunners on the vehicles kill people every day for getting too close to them. Every Iraqi has a horror story about a friend or relative who misunderstood an instruction, often in English, and was shot at.

…

Nowadays, though, people are terrified of crime. There have been more than 10,000 kidnappings, of which at least 1,000 ended in murder.

Having a good job is particularly dangerous. Kidnappers have attacked 76 schools, killing more than 300 schoolteachers in the process.

About 200 university lecturers have been murdered since the invasion. After the murder of a television boss a week ago, the journalists' union formally asked the government to allow journalists to carry weapons.

…

But there is a real, abiding anger that the richest nation on Earth should have taken over their country and made them even worse off in so many ways than they were before.

It isn’t quite balanced, but nothing else is to be expected of Simpleson (the one who referred to the London bombers as “misguided criminals”).

BBC News spreads falsehood on French riot-causing contract

2006-03-19T05:39:00.000Z

In Riots erupt after French protests, one can read the following.

Protesters are bitterly opposed to the new law, which allows employers to end job contracts for under-26s at any time during a two-year trial period without having to offer an explanation or give prior warning.

In the case of the contract ending during the first month, there is no prior warning; after the first month but before the sixth, there are two weeks’ warning; after the sixth month but before the end of the two years’ trial period, there is a month’s notice.

The French are already terribly disinformed about the contract and the BBC should avoid spreading falsehood on it, probably in order to justify the students’ irrational and unacceptable behaviour.

BBC News bias towards pro-abortion campaigners

2006-03-13T18:27:00.000Z

In Abortion battle lines drawn in Mississippi, BBC News captions a photograph of anti-abortion protests as follows.

Pro-choice and anti-abortion campaigners at a demonstration in South Dakota where most abortions have been banned

The BBC refers to pro-abortion activists as they refer to themselves, that is, “pro-choice”, a loaded term implying the negative opposite “anti-choice” — sounds repressive, doesn’t it? If it refers to pro-abortion campaigners as “pro-choice”, why does it not refer to anti-abortion activists as “pro-life”, as they call themselves?

BBC News quotes Iran press omitting state control

2006-03-13T18:01:00.000Z

BBC News features an aggregation of the Iranian press’s reaction to the IAEA decision to reports concerns about Iran to the UN Security Council. Among the newspapers quoted are Jomhuri-ye-Eslami, considered a mouthpiece of the fundamentalist Islamic Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, al-Vefagh, produced by the official news agency of Iran, the Islamic Republic News Agency, Kayhan, published under the supervision of the Office of the Supreme Leader, Tehran Times, which has a record of publishing anti-Semitic articles^[1] and Resalat, considered a hardline newspaper. Additionally, all media in Iran must be approved by the Ministry of Islamic Guidance. Could the BBC not at least point this out?

1. See articles at ADL website, Jihad Watch and Nikoed Nederland.

BBC News doesn’t report French left-wing students’ violence

2006-03-13T17:25:00.000Z

In Labour law to stay, says Villepin, one can read the following.

The unrest reached a climax when riot police used force to evacuate students from Sorbonne university on Saturday.

…

Students launched protests in dozens of universities last week, culminating in a three-day sit-in at Paris's Sorbonne.

It ended when police stormed in in the early hours of Saturday morning with batons and tear gas, clearing the main building in less than 10 minutes.

Would it be too much to say that the students vandalised the Sorbonne before the riot police came, breaking windows, deteriorating amphitheatres and classrooms, damaging the furniture, burning books in the library and gratuitously ransacking the academic right-wing union’s office, burning the entirety of the documents there?

The First Employment Contract (CPE) is a two-year contract for under-26-year-olds which employers can break off at any time without explanation.

BBC News could at least add that there are compensation and one month’s notice, two facts that the French Left also prefers to leave out when spreading disinformation campaign against the contract.

Some students accused the police of unnecessary violence, and student union leaders said it could escalate the dispute.

"If the government wants to continue using force... then we are heading towards a serious conflict," said Bruno Julliard, president of students' union UNEF.

Could the BBC not speak of the two students who attempted to enter their university, with one getting beaten up by far left militants, the other ending up in hospital after having her wheelchair pushed by a group of activists?

The BBC considers Mao a ‘hero’

2006-03-13T16:57:00.000Z

In China mulls Mao banknote change, one can read the following lead paragraph.

China may remove Mao Zedong's image from its mixed range of banknotes to make room for other heroes, according to the state media.

Mao Zedong is to be considered among “heroes”? Is that the same Mao Zedong whose government policy caused the death of several tens of millions of Chinese (from 29 million to around 70 million, claim various sources)?

One could be led to believe that it is the state media which refers to Mao as a hero, but neither Xinhua, the government’s official press agency, nor the People’s Daily, the Communist Party of China’s official newspaper, consider Mao a hero among others.

Iraq not ‘a mess’ because minister says so

2006-03-12T09:41:00.000Z

BBC News has published the story Minister admits Iraq is 'a mess', of which even the title reeks of bias: the use of the term admits implies that Iraq is “a mess”, that this is fact and not Kim Howells’s opinion. The BBC should have worded the title as has Scotsman.com: Iraq a mess, says minister Howells. The latter title in no way implies that Iraq is “a mess” and makes it clear that it is minister Howells’s opinion.

Besides, why does BBC News report on the mental scars of war, supposed drift towards civil war and the increase in Iraqi rights abuses, and not on the positive stories such as the fact that it was the Iraqi army that kept peace on the streets?

BBC quotes PA statistic without attribution

2006-03-08T15:04:00.000Z

In the BBC News article World Bank aid for Palestinians, one can read the following.

As many as one in four Palestinians depend on wages from the Palestinian Authority.

Where did the BBC obtain that figure? From an employee of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, who depends on wages from the Palestinian Authority; the government itself isn’t the most unbiased source on the issue of aid to Palestinians, is it?

BBC blind to reasons for which Europeans alienate Muslims

2006-03-08T14:09:00.000Z

BBC News has published an article entitled Europe's angry young Muslims, in which one can read the following.

Europe is home to a new generation of alienated young Muslims whose anger may turn to radicalism, the BBC's Islamic affairs analyst Roger Hardy finds in new three-part series.

…

Voices of alienation

…

Is a new angry, alienated generation of European Muslims now being drawn to radicalism?

How typical of the BBC to speak of the “alienation” of European Muslims and to ask the opinion of several young smiling “moderates” (one of them asking: “When was the last time Muslims were shown in a positive light?” How about: “The last time the BBC updated its website”?), turning a blind eye on the reasons for which they are alienated.

In the article, the example of France is given.

In the suburbs on the northern rim of the French capital, I found young Muslims, from Arab and African families, who feel excluded by the French state.

When during the riots President Chirac belatedly intervened, telling the people of the suburbs they were all sons and daughters of the French republic, many of them saw it as a bad joke.

France, unlike Britain, tries to keep religion out of public life. Everyone is supposed to be equal, regardless of cultural background.

Try telling that to Ali, who is 24 and unemployed.

"France has betrayed the young people of the suburbs. When you're called Ali you can't get a job. The French don't accept Islam. Politicians promise us mosques and so on, but at the same time they smear us and call us terrorists."

How about asking some of the French why they are hostile to Muslims? Could it be due to the gang rapes, the vandalism and so on? I heard a French taxi driver on television the other day say that he no longer took Muslims, because he was exasperated that they didn’t pay the fee. As much as the BBC would like it not to be the case, the alienation of European Muslims has been brought upon them because of the behaviour of some of the community’s members, not because Europeans are intrinsically bigoted.

BBC News stealth-edit

2006-03-05T19:24:00.000Z

The article Israel 'to make more withdrawals' has been stealth-edited (that is, modified without an updated timestamp).

BBC News attempt to associate neo-fascism and racism with the Right

2006-02-16T18:18:00.000Z

In Nazi deportees speak to Di Canio, one can read the following.

The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Rome, says Di Canio has become the darling of the neo-fascist right.

The use of the term “neo-fascist right” is an unsubtle attempt to stigmatise the Right, given that neo-fascism is undeniably a far right movement.

In the same article, the below paragraph also appears.

Lazio fans have a reputation as some of the most racist, right-wing fans in Italy.

This attempt at vilifying the Right is even more obvious than the one above, the article’s author trying to associate “racist” with “right-wing” by implying that the “most racist” are the “most right-wing”. There is a difference between the position on the political spectrum — from, say, centre-right to far right — and the degree of identification with a position on that spectrum — for example, vehement support for right-wing politics (conservatism or libertarianism) or more moderate centre-right views. “Most right-wing” should be understood as “most supportive of small government and free market”, not “furthest right” as the article’s author implies.

There is also the saddening possibility that, as a commenter over at Biased BBC once wrote, on the political spectrum inside the “BBC bubble”, the centre is in reality the left and the far right, what is actually the right.

BBC News omits radical aspect of imams’ “moderate” roadshow

2006-02-15T16:35:00.001Z

BBC News reports on the “imams’ roadshow” in London, a tour of “moderate” influential Islamic scholars giving their views on the Qur’an’s teachings to supposedly steer Muslims away from extremism, in Imams hit road to beat extremism. Not once, though, does the BBC refer to the radical leanings of speakers at the event, some of whom have alarming records of advocating jihadism, as revealed The Daily Standard more than two weeks ago.

* Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss Islamist intellectual who has been barred from entry into the United States. Ramadan has been praised as a moderate by Time magazine and others, but he has been treated with greater realism in Arab media, including the Beirut Daily Star, which noted that Ramadan has "has failed to condemn Palestinian suicide bombers" and that he defended Qatar-based Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a notorious extremist who has also supported suicide terrorism, on a British television talk-show. The Star further quoted Marc Gopin, director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, who said "after closely examining Ramadan's works and positions" he was " 'disappointed in Ramadan's approach' to the crises in the Arab and Muslim world . . . Gopin added [that] Ramadan's message did not provide a real approach to fundamental Islam that would make it 'more peaceful, nonviolent and pluralistic.'"
* Tariq Suweidan, from Kuwait, has also been excluded from the United States. Suweidan preached at a meeting of the Hamas-front Islamic Association for Palestine in Chicago in 2000, "Palestine will not be liberated but through Jihad. Nothing can be achieved without sacrificing blood. The Jews will meet their end at our hands."
* Hamza Yusuf Hanson, formerly Joseph Hanson, who, in 1991, gave a provoking speech about why "Jihad is the Only Way," at an International Islamic Conference held at the University of Southern California. That group is the local unit of the Islamic Circle of North America, a front for the al Qaeda-allied Jama'at-i-Islami movement in Pakistan.

* Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens, who is also known for his radical proclivities.

In the BBC News article, one can also read the following.

It is a completely different face of Islam from the angry, banner-waving Muslims seen recently after cartoons satirising the prophet Mohammed sparked outrage in Britain and around the world.

The Muslim prophet Muhammad is here referred to as “the prophet Mohammed”, though the first letter of the term “prophet” is no longer capitalised; will the BBC ever specify that he is the Muslims’ prophet?

BBC News reports Hamas’s truce, disregards Israel’s

2006-02-14T13:47:00.000Z

In BBC News reports on Hamas (such as Victorious Hamas must tread carefully, Hamas urges EU not to end funding and Hamas 'ready to talk to Israel'), one can often read the following.

Hamas has largely observed a truce in its fight with Israel for the past year.

The following excerpts are taken from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs’s 2005 Terrorism Review.

During 2005, the terrorist organizations have increased their efforts to establish infrastructures for producing mortar rounds and rockets … eight such infrastructures (four affiliated with Hamas …) were uncovered.

…

Hamas was intensively involved in terrorist actions throughout 2005 despite the "tahdia". Hamas was responsible for the suicide bombing at the Beersheba bus station on 28 August 2005 in which two security guards were seriously wounded. In September 2005, Hamas terrorists abducted and murdered Jerusalem businessman Sasson Nuriel.

While refraining from publicly claiming responsibility for terror attacks, maintaining the outward semblance of abiding by the "tahdia", or declared calm, Hamas assisted other terrorist groups in carrying out attacks against Israel.

In Victorious Hamas must tread carefully, Jim Muir wrote the following.

But in practice, although it carried out many suicide attacks in the past, Hamas has largely observed a unilateral truce for the past year.

Hamas announced that it was committed to a truce, though calling it “unilateral” is somewhat misleading, giving the impression that Israel has not declared a truce when in fact it has.

BBC News is eager to report that Hamas has “largely” observed a truce in its fight with Israel for the past year, yet nowhere says that Israel has, too, greatly observed a truce in its fight against Palestinians in 2005, as revealed by the following graph of the Palestinian death toll from 2004 onwards, including the deaths of militants (figures given by the Palestine Red Crescent Society).

As can be seen, the number of Palestinian deaths has greatly decreased since Israel declared a truce, though BBC News does not make this known, too busy, it seems, reporting that the Israeli death toll is the lowest in years, thanks to the truce observed by those ever trustworthy “militant” groups.

BBC double standards alive and well

2006-02-10T17:49:00.000Z

In Italy judge throws out Jesus case, one can read the following.

An atheist who sued a small-town priest for saying that Jesus Christ existed has had his case thrown out of court.

…

But Mr Cascioli said his opponent would have a hard time trying to demonstrate that he had committed slander since this would mean proving that Jesus Christ existed.

Follow excerpts from Islam-West divide 'grows deeper'.

As he spoke at a conference in Kuala Lumpur, thousands protested outside at cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

…

The satirical cartoons include an image portraying Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits any depiction of Allah and the Prophet.

…

A Swedish internet service provider shuts down the website of a right-wing anti-immigrant party which invited readers to send in cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad

In the former story, Jesus Christ is referred to by his name whereas in the latter report, as in much others, the Muslim prophet Muhammad is called “Prophet Muhammad” or simply “the Prophet”, the first letter of the term invariably capitalised. Why is Jesus Christ not referred to as “the Lord Jesus Christ” or “the Saviour”?

The BBC’s former chief executive having recently identified its double standards in dealing with Islam, one would think that it would have taken notice — and one would be wrong, it appears, to do so.

BBC News admits to falling for fake Muhammad cartoon

2006-02-07T04:45:00.000Z

In A clash of rights and responsibilities, by the BBC News website World Affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds, one can read the following.

Twelve cartoons were originally published by Jyllands-Posten. None showed the Prophet with the face of a pig. Yet such a portrayal has circulated in the Middle East (The BBC was caught out and for a time showed film of this in Gaza without realizing it was not one of the 12).

I believe the above statement is the first in which BBC News admits to falling for one of the fake Muhammad cartoons, considerably more offensive than Jyllands-Posten’s original 12, distributed around Muslim countries in an attempt to stir up even more hate.

BBC News misleading on status of Hamas

2006-02-05T14:08:00.000Z

In Israel to pay frozen tax revenues, one can read the following.

Israel suspended the funds because it regards Hamas as a terrorist group committed to the destruction of Israel.

The above statement is somewhat misleading, in that it makes it sound as though only Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group committed to the country’s destruction. In fact, it is also listed as a terrorist group by the European Union, Canada, the United States and Australia. Former Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi said that the movement “will remove Israel from the map”, a motivation corroborated by the Hamas charter, from which the following excerpts are taken.

Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors.

…

The Hamas has been looking forward to implement Allah’s promise whatever time it might take. The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!

…

The Arab states surrounding Israel are required to open their borders to the Jihad fighters, the sons of the Arab and Islamic peoples, to enable them to play their role and to join their efforts to those of their brothers among the Muslim Brothers in Palestine.

BBC News’s statement would have been more accurate if formulated as follows.

Israel suspended the funds because Hamas, regarded as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States as well as by itself, is committed to the destruction of Israel.

Jim Muir perhaps sets the editorial guidelines.

BBC News blind to Iran’s violation of human rights

2006-02-02T17:50:00.000Z

Why is it that BBC News seemingly refuses to report on Iran’s violation of human rights?

The story of the teenage rape victim sentenced to death by hanging for having killed one of the three men who had tried to rape both her and her niece was nowhere to be seen on the BBC News website, an omission which BBC’s NewsWatch tries to excuse by saying that the story “became known on a weekend” and that stories missed by BBC News and “covered widely elsewhere” the BBC avoids covering. An excerpt of the NewsWatch reply to a comment on the issue follows.

However, the fact it isn't running shouldn't be seen as an act of censorship - we have covered the issue of Iran's human rights in the past:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4184598.stm

“In the past”? Biased BBC writer Ed Thomas puts it best.

'In the past'- oh, ok, we only bother with Iran as a kind of academic, history exercise. It's not like their business is news or anything. And it was the weekend- the three billions of public money just couldn't cover that

The story linked to goes back 5 months and was published only on the basis that Amnesty International expressed “growing concern” — how else can such scarce coverage of Iran’s violation of human rights be explained?

The American Expatriate revealed BBC News’s extraordinary interest in US executions. Iran executed at least 159 people in 2004, yet BBC News apparently published only the following articles covering executions in the country in that year.

October: Iran child killer to be executed
December: UN chides Iran over human rights

In 2005, there were more than 120 executions in Iran since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s term began on the 3rd of August, 2005 and many more before that date. It seems BBC News published only the following articles reporting on this issue last year.

January: Iran denies execution by stoning
March: Iran's 'desert vampire' executed
July: Iran 'must stop youth executions'
August: Execution plea over Iran youths

Those that rely on BBC News for impartial coverage of violation of human rights have a lot hidden from them, as revealed by sites such as Iran Focus, Human Rights Watch and the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s. The following list enumerates BBC News articles covering Iran’s abuse of human rights in 2004 and 2005.

June 2004: Report slams Iran rights abuses, Iran rebukes EU on rights abuses
December 2004: UN chides Iran over human rights
January 2005: US concern over Iran human rights, Iran's Khatami raps US on rights
February 2005: The price paid for blogging Iran, Iran girl gets 100 lashes for sex
May 2005: Iran's top judge attacks police

BBC News does not report on, say, Iran’s secret police arresting hundreds of union activists, the three men flogged in public for drinking in December 2005 and the two men hanged for homosexuality in November 2005. There are many other such stories of which even the most appalling aren’t reported by the BBC.

Why are these events not covered by BBC News?

BBC News readers’ opinion on Muhammad cartoons misrepresented

2006-02-02T16:36:00.000Z

In Anger grows over Muhammad cartoon and Danish plea for calm on cartoons, BBC News selects the two following quotes from readers’ opinions expressed in Have Your Say: Should 'anti-Islam' cartoons have been published?.

We fought for freedom of religion...France Soir's owner should be ashamed

Marcel de Vries, Netherlands

Freedom of speech has its limits when it concerns others...How would it feel if Jesus Christ was the one insulted instead?

Randa Ahmed Essa, Egypt

“Cartoon row: Your reaction” being the text for the link to readers’ opinions, one would think that the above reactions are generally representative of those expressed. In reality, readers have massively recommended opinions favouring the publishing of the cartoons, with more than 50 such posts — that’s into the fourth page — being recommended over all others.

The supporters among BBC News readers of the publishing of “anti-Islam” cartoons are visibly in overwhelming majority, so is it not quite deceitful to select the opinions of two readers who are in the minority?