‘Shocking’: Scottish pro-Palestine protests absent from BBC coverage

We told how thousands of Scots attended the demonstration on Buchanan Street on Saturday, with Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Inverness also seeing protests. And while the public broadcaster covered pro-Palestinian protests in other parts of the UK, including London and Cardiff, Scotland's demos were absent from the BBC's website and Reporting Scotland's Saturday evening bulletin. The five-minute long programme, which aired at 5.45pm, featured a three-minute segment on Storm Babet, an update on football results and the weather.

BBC Scotland's website carried no coverage of the protest on Saturday or Sunday, with the only available online article relating to protests from seven days prior. On BBC News's UK website, a headline reads: "Pro-Palestinian protests take place in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Belfast and Salford." There is no mention in the lengthy story of demonstrations in any Scottish locations.

The National: Mick Napier, who MC'd the event, and member of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) who organised the Glasgow demonstration, said the protest which ended in George Square was "chock a block". "We had a huge problem with our PA system, which was very powerful, trying to reach the very back of the crowd, that's how big it was," he told The National.

"We're used to the BBC not behaving like a news agency, not behaving according to proper journalistic standards, it's shocking but it's not surprising. "We have very very low expectations of the BBC." Napier pointed to research conducted by Glasgow University Media Group[3] in 2004 and 2011 that found broadcasters in the UK, including the BBC, "substantially" favoured Israeli government views and that there was a difference in language used to describe Israelis and Palestinians.

"It showed a systematic pattern of privileging Israeli views of what was going on and skewing coverage very much against the Palestinians," he said. "I guess we've been battered down for so long that we had very low expectations, but it's still shocking." The National:

On the huge turnout, Napier added: "We were very pleased that the city, which played a role acknowledged by Nelson Mandela in ending apartheid in South Africa, can play a similar role in ending the dark shadow that hangs over Palestine today." The BBC has been contacted for comment. It comes as former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennet accused the BBC of "taking sides"[4] during a tense interview on Sunday, claiming the broadcaster was backing Palestinians in Gaza and criticising the framing of its questioning.

On Friday, the BBC revealed that journalists would no longer use militants as the "default" phrase to describe Hamas, and instead will call them a group "proscribed as a terror organisation by the UK Government and others" after criticism. Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the BBC's stance "atrocious" in an interview with the Daily Mail, before the change in terminology was made. Last week it was revealed that the BBC had received more than 1500 complaints relating to its coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict - almost evenly split between those who claimed its reporting has been biased against Israel and others who said it is biased against Palestinians.

We also told how senior UK politicians, including the Prime Minister, have been criticised for failing to "hold Israel to account" for human rights violations. [6]

References

  1. ^ 'Scotland could have more referendums on big issues after independence' (www.thenational.scot)
  2. ^ Robert Jenrick leaves presenter in disbelief in BBC interview (www.thenational.scot)
  3. ^ Glasgow University Media Group (www.glasgowmediagroup.org)
  4. ^ accused the BBC of "taking sides" (www.thenational.scot)
  5. ^ David Pratt: Gaza's most dangerous days still lie ahead (www.thenational.scot)
  6. ^ failing to "hold Israel to account" for human rights violations. (www.thenational.scot)

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