Safe -- but where's the bunting?

Sean Healy

I believe Paul Martin is also a Jew and, therefore, a priori guilty in the eyes of the BBC. Maybe there's your explanation.

xxxx

Sky News had it. Nyer.

Bernard

I too have frequently found that news that is omitted on the regular BBC channels is however reported on the BBC World Service.
The reason is the WS is separately funded through the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and is probably not stuffed with lefties like Mark Thompson, who have their own political agenda.

Rob-NY

Nothing about the kidnapping but loads about those nasty Israelis building houses in their own capital city and thus being the root of all trouble in the Middle-East.

Rob-NY

Nothing about the kidnapping but loads about those nasty Israelis building houses in their own capital city and thus being the root of all trouble in the Middle-East.

Eddie

Interesting piece. I have long been annoyed at the BBC's biased coverage which promotes certains agendas in various social and political areas: e.g. always pro-multiculturalism and mass immigration; pro-muslim and anti-anyone who raises uncomfortable questions that do not fit their Ethnophiliac and Ismaophiliac agenda; and really anti-Israel and pro-enemies-of-Israel...

Perhaps it's all that dinner paty white Jewish guilt at the BBC?

Something should be done...

Carolyn

One journalist was taken off the streets by an unstable militia group to an uncertain fate, the other imprisoned by the government and presumably his whereabouts were known. One was substantially more at risk than the other. Also, one was in Gaza on the payroll of the BBC, the other there for personal reasons so I imagine the BBC didn't feel the same responsibility for him. As for the lack of reporting - tosh. I've been hearing about it on the BBC for three weeks, and on the 11th heard Paul Martin being interviewed after his release. Quite frankly, I think you're looking for a political agenda which doesn't exist just to give your piece some substance. And do you really believe that slur in your final paragraph... ?

Dalia

you have to consider the possibility that media coverage interferes with the efforts to release the person especially with Hamas.

Olgordo

Yes, Carolyn, I really do believe that "slur" in the final paragraph. The British MSM, with barely an exception, has an agenda that covers appeasement of the Islamists on the one hand and vilification of Israel on the other.

During the whole of this past week, TV Channel 4 has been repeatedly plugging, in between its current programmes,the 'Dispatches' programme that will be screened next Monday, March 15, at 8.00 pm on the impact of war on the minds of the children of Gaza. The preview film clip for this programme shows a small Arab boy addressing the camera, with the English sub-titles: "Why are they attacking Gaza?" "What have we ever done to them!". The propaganda message that is clearly intended here is that Israel takes unprovoked military action against Gaza. I'm sure, from past performance on Channel 4, that this is a perfect sample of what the overall programme content will be. I'm sorry to say that a majority of viewers will no doubt relish and eagerly swallow it all!

Carolyn

Well, until I see the programme I'll reserve judgement, Olgordo. You appear to have condemed it on the strength of a clip. If it is as you say, a programme on the effects of the conflict on Gazan children - then the children think what they think - which needs reporting as such, if only as a warning as to the sort of trouble which might be brewing in the future.
A couple of years ago I took issue with a Gazan journalist writing for Al Jazeera, who claimed the BBC were not objective in their reporting of the Middle East, and that they favoured the Israelis.

roger

Olgordo: In a just world Channel 4 would be showing a programme about the impact of the relentless indoctrination, and abuse of children from birth in Gaza at the hands of their own parents,inculcating hatred of Jews into their developing brains, rearing them to glorify martyrdom and suicide bombing, brainwashing them to honour the murder of innocent Jewish women and children on Palestinian TV kid's shows,encouraging them to believe that the only acceptable future is the annihilation of Israel. May God damn Channel 4 and its appeasement of evil.

Rob-NY

I wonder how much of the BBC Licence Fee and other UK tax funds went to his terrorist kidnappers who along with the money will get even more sympathetic coverage from the biased Beeb.

Dixon

Roger...indeed true. They could start by telling of the career of Farfour the Jihadi Mouse on Fakestinian childrens TV. He was eventually killed off ( literally ) by evil Zionist pest controllers ( allegedly ).

Ed

"One of Hamas’ aims in detaining Martin was, of course, to further deter any brave foreign journalist on assignment in Gaza who might dare report the truth about the Hamas regime."

that kind of makes the point doesn't it? Maybe the media ignored it because they didn't want Hamas' message to succeed.

Ed

Rob - Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel. It's Tel Aviv.

Lucy

Carolyn tells us Melanie Phillips is looking for a "political agenda which doesn't exist" and tells us to dismiss the idea that there has been bias in the coverage.

Carolyn, why don't you tot up the column inches given to Alan Johnson and then tot up the column inches given to this man and give them to us and then I'll believe you that this case hasn't been deliberately ignored.

Carolyn

Thought I'd already made that point Lucy. Alan Johnston was at the time the BBC's man in Gaza. I don't know how much reporting went on in the early days, but the opinion was that he'd be released soon, the same as other foreign journalist. The length of his captivity, the fact that his fate & whereabouts were unknown, and the unstable nature of the group holding him makes his situation quite different from that of Paul Martin. Martin wasn't kidnapped, he was arrested & put in jail.
I trust Roger's post is factual, and the result of diligent journalisn in Gaza, and not just the rantings of someone safe in another country.

C. Gee

Carolyn:

Is Hamas the legitimate government in Gaza?
Was its arrest of Martin a legal arrest?
Was Martin charged with a crime?
Is "distortion of the image of Palestinians" a crime?
If so, should it be?
May I suggest that you subscribe to MEMRI? They translate Arab media. Corroboration of Roger's and others' point about propaganda to children is plentiful. Watch the video clips from Hamas TV. I am sure that you would wish to be diligent.

The fact that the BBC gets accused of bias from both sides, does not mean that they are therefore objective. The one side sees anything less than the advocacy of annihilation of its enemy as bias, the other sees the lack of balance - often the lack of proper context - as bias. I would submit that a call for balance and context is closer than the former to the norms of objectivity that the BBC or Western journalism generally strive for (theoretically).

We do not know yet what the program on children in Gaza will say, but if it does not do some "diligent journalism", as you put it, on Hamas children's TV, school text books, religious education and their effects on how children think, then bias may well be a just allegation. Oh, and perhaps the journalists will ask the children about the rockets sent to the children of Sderot...Perhaps they will do a quickie interview with Israeli psychologists and children.

I hope you watch the show objectively, or at least with the same critical distance as you read blogs and comments.

Lucy

Carolyn: “Alan Johnston was at the time the BBC's man in Gaza.” Eh? So what? This is a BBC journalist and he is in Gaza. The BBC might not show exactly the same level of concern as for Alan Johnston, but shouldn't we expect at least a fraction of what he got?

“I don't know how much reporting went on in the early days,” - handily enough, we can help you out there by using the internet. Just look how many press releases the BBC issued so that it could get the national papers to cover the story and keep Mr Johnston in the public's thoughts:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/07_july/04/johnston.shtml

Bags of them.

Absolutely heaps of them to help keep Mr Johnston’s case in the spotlight.

We know that Alan Johnston was held longer than Mr Martin, but no one knew that at the time.

Indeed, you will find on that BBC list that at 21 days (less than the four weeks Mr Martin was held captive) the mainstream British media was making such a hullabaloo over the incident that this happened:

‘The journalistic community has called for kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston to be released in a full page advert in the Guardian newspaper on Monday 2 April 2007.

‘Well-known figures from print and broadcast journalism including BBC Director-General Mark Thompson, Jeremy Paxman, David Dimbleby, Sir Trevor McDonald, Jon Snow, David Frost, Huw Edwards, John Humphrys and John Simpson joined national newspaper editors including the Daily Mail's Paul Dacre, the Guardian's Alan Rusbridger and Robert Thompson at The Times to pledge their support.

‘A wide range of correspondents, editors and presenters from the UK and abroad – including many who have worked with Johnston – have signed the 300-name petition.’

Well!

If you type in Paul Martin’s name on that BBC Press Office link you won’t find any press releases on him. None. Zilch. Nada.

Within the first four weeks of Alan Johnston’s incarceration, the BBC Press Office is going like the clappers, with non-BBC MSM journalists lapping it up to the extent they even took out an advert in a national newspaper.

Within the four weeks of Paul Martin’s incarceration the BBC Press Office has nothing to say.

And you seriously contend that the reason why Mr Martin didn‘t get even a tiny fraction of that support at the same stage of his incarceration is because with Mr Johnston “the fact that his fate & whereabouts were unknown” and because of “the unstable nature of the group holding him”.

As if Hamas, a terrorist organisation, isn‘t unstable.

You’re as transparent as the media you defend, Carolyn.

Nachman

Carolyn: "Martin wasn't kidnapped, he was arrested & put in jail." I suppose that might be ok if the arrest and jailing took place in the UK or the USA perhaps however you omit to point out that this was an "arrest" read abduction and confinement in a jail operated by a proscribed terrorist organisation. An organisation which does not subscribe to the Rule of Law. seeing what has happened to Gilad Schallit who suffered the same fate Martin was in as much if not more danger than Johnston who was originally kidnapped for a ransom. Who knows what the BBC agreed to to effect his release. Obviously Hamas feared that Martin would uncover just exactly what it is doing in Gaza which the BBC does not wish or fears for its journalists safety if it does report them. Either way Martin was an embarrassment to the BBC and other anti-Israel MSM hence the relative silence on his abduction.

blue_&_white_avenger

Ed. You're talking out of the top of your head.
I happen to be Israeli;
my capital is Israel & always has been & I add always will be.
or are you part of that elite from europe who tells us not just when we can build but what we can build and where?
PS Britain captured the Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Falklands hundreds of years ago; King David bought (paid money for)Jerusalem for the Jewish people 2800 years ago.

Ed

blue_&_white_avenger - your capital is Israel??? You know that Israel is a country, right? It cannot be your capital? That's like saying America is the capital of America.

blue_&_white_avenger

Ooops - sorry.
The capital of Israel is Jerusalem!

Carolyn

C Gee: I thought Hamas were the legitimate government following the election in 2006. Regardless of their terrorist status they were allowed to participate and took the majority of seats.

As for 'transparency' Lucy, you ar also finding an agenda which does not exist. I stumble upon a blog, disagree with some of the sentiments expressed, and find I'm now fighting a rearguard action on behalf of the BBC and the British media! I have no connection to journalism or the media whatsoever. I've listened to the BBC all my life, and actually, I used to find their Middle East reporting more on the lines of 'poor Israeli' and 'nasty Arab terrorist', only in later years giving a more balanced approach. (& no Lucy, I'm not trawling though the archives to substantiate this - I'm just giving my impression). Had I the time and knew how to search effectively I could find BBC reports on the
effect of the rockets on Sderot http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4721840.stm

However - I am good at empathy. I totally understand the desire for an Israeli state, following centuries of European anti-semetism, culminating in the holocaust, but if it were plonked in the middle of my country on the basis of the staus quo 2000 years ago, I may not use rockets but I doubt whether I would dance either.

Skeptic

>>>>>>Well, until I see the programme I'll reserve judgement, Olgordo.

Oh, holy innocence!

Skeptic

>>>>>Rob - Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel. It's Tel Aviv.

No, it isn't. It's Jerusalem. That's where the government is, which is the definition of a "capital".

Brian

Interesting the way people make judgements about the Dispatches tomorrow night based more on their own prejudices than anything else. I've seen the film, and the indoctrination of the children both at school and in the home. Try watching the film first before you condemn it (which you no doubt will anyway, as it gives a voice to Gazan children - but at least condemn it from a place of knowledge rather than ignorance)

Ed

Skeptic - not, it is Tel Aviv. And a capital city doesn't necessarily have to be where the government sits. It isn't in the Netherlands, Benin, Bolivia, the Ivory Coast or, as was stated, Israel. Tel Aviv is the recognised capital of Israel - which is demonstrated by there being no embassies based in Jerusalem, all being based in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is the recognised capital, not Jerusalem.

Adam B.

Carolyn

Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust. You really need to examine the history of the Jewish people across millenia, and the aspirations of the Jews in re-establishing the Jewish state across that period. It was never anyone else's country – at any time. Please do some research before pronouncing judgment.

Are you seriously pretending that the BBC even approaches a modicum of impartiality? This is a vicious organization which is dedicated to presenting the most blatant and poisonous propaganda. Was it impartial for Barbara Plett to burst into tears at the thought of the arch terrorist Arafat dying ( the pioneer of air hijacking)? Is it impartial that the BBC refers to “terrorism” in every instance except when Jews are the victims, when the perpetrators become "militants"? When the BBC endlessly refers to Palestinian refugees but never mentions a greater number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries? Is it impartial that the BBC is fixated with Israel, when it ignores 7 million deaths in the DRC? (Not ONE TV report – not one!) Or the fact that it suppressed the Balen Report, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds for licence fee payers? The whitewashing of Hamas’ racism, and its tactics of hiding behind civilian populations? The catalogue is endless…

We are fed a very carefully chosen and highly editorialized version of events to paint Israel as the villain and the Palestinians as the perennial victim – this has become the narrative to which all facts must be made to fit. The BBC bears some of the responsibility for the record levels of anti-Semitic attacks we are witnessing in the UK today, as borne out by the statistics of the CST. It is a shameful record.

Adam B.

Ed, Tel Aviv is not the "recognised" capital - but it is where most embassies are based.

Adam B.

Incidentally, several countries did maintain their embassies in Jerusalem, until it became politically expedient for them to move.

Skeptic

>>>>>>>Tel Aviv is the recognised capital, not Jerusalem.

A capital is defined by the country, not by foreign countries. It is defined as Jerusalem by Israel, and there the government is, which makes it the capital. That many, er, testicle-less countries don't have their embassies in Jerusalem, the capital, because of fear of Arab threats doesn't stop Jerusalem from being a capital.

If tomorrow the Islamic world declares London to be holy Islamic ground and demands the occupying British colonialists move out or else...

...and Israel and other countries oblige, and moves their embassies to, say, Birmingham...

...does that mean Birmingham is suddenly the "real" capital of Britain?

Sheila

Carolyn, it isn't just the BBC (although the contrast in the press release numbers â“ or in one case total absence of them â“ that is so revealing about that institution).

It is that at 21 days' incarceration for Alan Johnston a huge swathe of the journalistic establishment had banded together to the extent that they even took an ad out in The Guardian. There they all are: Paxman, Snow, Dimbleby and so on.

There wasn't a smidgeon of this at 21 days for Paul Martin.

And you say this is just coincidence?

Baron

Carolyn:

Sadly, you seem to be a typical by-product of the soft brainwashing the BBC and the pseudo-liberal MSM have been pumping out successfully for years. Before the fall of communism, the Red Menace used to poll near 100% of the vote. Legitimate, was it? Would you also argue that Hitler’s NSDAP was ‘legitimate’? Did millions die in vain to destroy the legitimacy of the Nazi evil then?

If the Palestinians were given a chance to participate in genuinely free election neither Hamas not the other lot would get a look in. Except for the ‘we-must-destroy-Israel’ core, the majority of those who voted for Hamas were either bought or scared.

Israel has her faults and boils, but the Middle-East will not live in peace until the Palestinian people are freed from the straightjacket of hate fuelled extremism.

John Thomas

Carolyn ("I've listened to the BBC all my life"), we all know that the BBC used to be a fine organisation, committed to balance and fair reporting, and it probably hasn't been the "Brazenly Biased Corp" for a long time - but those days are over, and defence such as yours only puts off the day when the Orgean Stables get the clean-out they badly need. Let's start by demanding "no taxation (licence fee) without proper representation" and accountability.

Ed

Skeptic - if you think that what you have described is anywhere near comparable to the history of the capital of Israel, you are more stupid than you appear. Read some books. Learn some history. Ta muchly.

Elena

Nothing about Paul Martin on Australian news as well, now I understand why...

Adam B.

Ed, you are simply wrong. Tel Aviv is not recognised as the capital in any sense.

I think it is you who needs to read more.

kate b

We've stopped watching the BBC since it's been boring us to death with the Iraq inquiry.