(SACNS)
The BBC's failure to note a genocide against black Africans in Libya, without cause, and its downplaying rebel atrocities there and elsewhere, such as Syria, has had the BBC admit to being over-enthusiastic for one side or other. Media, often sells better where there is a clear bad guy and a clear good guy.
In war, mostly, both sides are equally bad, or both bad and good. The BBC, it seems, has been pushing the good of one side, and the bad of another. An experienced journalist, and former UN communications director, has authored an internal memo, raising some concerns. Others have worried about the BBC's reputation and honesty, following the BBC's internal memo on bias. Biased reporting on a conflict, can easily be perceived as propaganda, and often aids one or other side.
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| When news, rather than reporting the truth, from among the lies, takes sides, often lives are cost, or nations destroyed... |
RT (in an article by their staff) Interviews TJ Walker of Media Training Worldwide at 28 June 2012:
http://www.rt.com/news/bbc-media-uprising-competition-929/
'“There is a bias, always in favor of the bigger story. The true revolution is always going to be more exciting, it’s going to be a bigger story and that’s what reporters want to be a part of. It doesn’t mean it was a good journalistic decision, but that is reality when it comes to major networks,” Walker told RT.
Authored by Edward Mortimer, a former foreign affairs commentator for the Times and Financial Times and ex-UN director of communications, the BBC Trust report accused the network of being slow to highlight human rights abuses by rebel factions in the Libyan war and underestimating the violent nature of the Syrian uprising as it began. It also stated that the channel failed to provide international reaction to events or focus on other countries like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
The BBC has acknowledged that its coverage of the subject could have been broader.
“In the conflict in Egypt in the beginning. . . we might have sounded over-excited – you can take on the color of who you’re with,” Helen Boaden, the director of news, was quoted saying. “In Libya too, where we were essentially embedded [with the rebels] at the start, we might have sounded over-excited – you have to be careful if you can’t get to the other side of the story.”'
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