The BBC Won't Play This Aid Appeal for Gaza

[reprehensor]

Run time: 03:12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofuvlx-MGRk   Posted on YouTube: January 26, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: January 27, 2009 By DU Member: reprehensor Views on DU: 965

 
The BBC has been joined by Sky News in their boycott of this aid appeal for the children of Gaza. But you can watch it on YouTube, as the Disasters Emergency Committee has posted the ad.

See also;

"BBC staff protest over decision not to show Gaza aid appeal"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jan/26/bbc-staff-protest-over-gaza-aid-appeal

Please post this all over the web, and shame the BBC and Sky news.

[BartMang]

1. Wow.

Shame on you Israel.

[bjobotts]

2. Politics trumps humanity??? America gave the weapons used to devastate the region

[bjobotts]

3. We should at least donate food , water & blankets to the victims.

[Seldona]

4. I agree this should not be about the who, what, and why, but about the PEOPLE.

The list of agencies supporting the call for aid in this add were some pretty heavy hitters. This is no scam. If you can help please do, regardless of the politics.

[Liberal Elitist]

5. Just donated to this appeal

Can someone explain to me why broadcasting this appeal could show political bias?

To me, the appeal video didn't take sides, didn't try to blame Israel or Hamas, so NOT broadcasting it shows political bias and is actively anti-Palestinian.

It went out of it's way not to blame anyone, and quoted the casualty figure as "hundreds", ie being vague in order not to get drawn into arguments over figures between Hamas & Israel.

The appeal is based on need, and pretty obviously there is greater need in Gaza where whole villages have been flattened by the IDF, compared to adjoining parts of Israel where Hamas rockets have damaged individual buildings.

[Joanne98]

6. The media should be nationalized. They're worthless!

[JohnyCanuck]

7. Decision by the BBC should have been "no surprise."

The BBC’s pact with Israel
Money and ideology behind BBC’s decision not to broadcast Gaza humanitarian appeal

27 January 2009

The BBC’s refusal to broadcast a humanitarian appeal for Gaza on behalf of a group of charities is motivated by a desire to appease US advertisers for its commercial TV channel and website, and by Mark Thompson’s own political proclivities.

Many people have been shocked and bewildered by the BBC’s refusal to broadcast a national humanitarian appeal for Gaza on behalf of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an umbrella organization for 13 humanitarian aid agencies.

However, the decision by the BBC’s director-general, Mark Thompson, not to broadcast the appeal should have come as no surprise. In fact, media observers have been witnessing a steady tilt by the corporation towards Israel since the turn of the millennium.

According to our sources, there are two fundamental reasons for this. The first is the need to boost advertising revenue for the debt-ridden BBC World News television channel, which cannot be seen in the UK. This channel relies heavily on advertisers from the United States who we understand have told the BBC in no uncertain terms that they would advertise with it only if the corporation changed its editorial line on the Arab-Israeli conflict in favour of Israel.

Related to this is the decision by the BBC to introduce advertising on its news website for users outside the UK, bbc.com. Although this had been in the planning since at least 2000, it was introduced only in November 2007. However, we understand that throughout this period BBC executives argued that the corporation must make further changes to its coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict in order to insure that it is on the right side of US advertisers when bbc.com goes commercial.

http://www.redress.cc/global/redress20090127

[JohnyCanuck]

8. "British national broadcaster has displayed its lily-livered editorial colours."

BBC exemplifies anti-Palestinian bias
By Linda S. Heard
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Jan 28, 2009, 00:22

By refusing to air an appeal for Gaza relief by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) that umbrella??s numerous charities, including the British Red Cross, Save the Children and Oxfam, the British national broadcaster has displayed its lily-livered editorial colours.

Ironically, the BBC has refused the DEC’s request on the basis that it does not want to show bias on this sensitive political issue.


SNIP

Channel 4’s seasoned journalist Jon Snow described the BBC’s decision as “ludicrous” and founded on “complete ignorance.”

Snow is one of a handful of television journalists who has been prepared to investigate how Israeli propaganda has influenced the West’s reporting of the Gaza massacre. His recent video report, Unseen Gaza (available on the Internet), is a jewel.

It shows how Western reporters were barred from entering Gaza during Israel’s onslaught and were instead treated to a display of mangled metal purported to be exploded Hamas rockets and a fat folder of Israel Defence Forces press releases before being corralled by Israeli security some distance away from the Gaza Strip. Interestingly, though, there has been an absence of on-air complaints by Western news desks; those same networks that condemned Zimbabwe for banning their journalists.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4290.shtml

[Turborama]

9. Unseen Gaza

I'm a big fan of Jon Snow's work (I put a link to a documentary he made about Iraq in the Blackstone thread earlier), here's "Unseen Gaza" on Google Video & YouTube:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8132449999430251419&ei=t8OASaqgJI3WwgPJ6pipDA&q=jon+snow+Unseen+Gaza">Part 1

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9074563122846363135&ei=t8OASaqgJI3WwgPJ6pipDA&q=jon+snow+Unseen+Gaza">Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=792BBB3E85F1B821">Full YouTube Playlist



(Edit to add YouTube playlist)

[Turborama]

10. More about "Unseen Gaza"

Is what has been presented on our screens and in our papers a true reflection of events on the ground in Gaza? And how do these reports differ to those aired in other countries?

With reporters unable to enter Gaza, attempted media manipulation from both sides and strict regulations governing what images that can be shown on British TV, Jon Snow asks a range of journalists from at home and abroad about the challenges of getting the full story.

Featuring images that haven't before been aired on mainstream television, Jon also examines the difference between the coverage at home and that in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

He compares the coverage available on terrestrial channels with satellite TV and the internet and investigates the extent to which some British Muslims are by-passing the mainstream British media and looking elsewhere for their information.

To what extent does the choice of news outlet affect opinion of the conflict?

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unseen-gaza/...eries-1/episode-3

Good quality and well seeded torrent available http://www.mininova.org/tor/2208996">here

[JohnyCanuck]

11. We will never work for the BBC again - actors and directors in Gaza protest

ACTORS and directors have warned the BBC they will not work for the corporation again if it does not broadcast the Gaza charity appeal. In a letter written to Mark Thompson, the BBC's director-general, the actors Tam Dean Burn and Pauline Goldsmith, and the directors Peter Mullan and Alison Peebles, said they were "appalled" by the refusal to show the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal.

Their ultimatum came as the satellite broadcaster Sky also decided yesterday it would not screen the DEC film. Like the BBC, it said it wanted to protect the impartiality of its news reports.

Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian crisis, with its 1.5 million population urgently needing food, water, medicine and shelter, after Israel's three-week assault.

The BBC said yesterday it had received about 15,000 complaints about its decision not to screen the appeal for the DEC, which represents several charities.

http://news.scotsman.com/uk/We-will-never-work-for.4914990.jp