Date: 26 / 01 / 2009  Time:  13:43
Bethlehem - Ma’an -

BBC Broadcasters refused to air an appeal for Gaza aid put together by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), and is now being accused of impartial coverage of the war on Gaza.

The accusations brought more than 2,000 to the streets of London, protesting the BBC decision to refuse air time for the appeal.

The DEC is an umbrella organization for British non-profits like the British Red Cross, Oxfam and World Vision, which aims at uniting resources to best serve populations in emergency situations. Many of their appeals for aid, including for victims of the Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone in December 20008, the Darfur and Chad Crisis Appeal in February 2008, and the Tsunami Earthquake Appeal in 2004, have been aired on the BBC.

According to some analysis the BBC decision “raises fresh questions in the aftermath of Israel’s offensive as to the impartiality of reporting and the presentation of the conflict to the British public.”

At issue, is the BBC’s concern over the political nature of aid transfers into the Gaza Strip. Editor in Chief at the BBC Mark Thompson explained in a statement that two elements of the aid transfer concerned top-level BBC journalists and staff.

The first issue, he said, was a concern over whether the aid raised by British citizens would actually get into Gaza.

Israel has only partially opened crossings for humanitarian goods, and while UN officials say Israel is being more cooperative than in the past months, there are no guarantees being offered for aid delivery.

There is a significant amount of aid, however, being sent through Rafah crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip. Egypt has sent through hundreds of trucks of aid, as well as doctors, delegations of international journalists fresh fruits and vegetables as well as aid sent from several countries.

The Thompson noted that the situation around the crossings changes on a daily basis and that if it does, “this reason for declining to broadcast the appeal will no longer be relevant.”

BBC Officer Caroline Thomson, according to the DEC, has since stated that the first concern regarding the ability of aid to get into Gaza has been satisfactorily answered, but “BBC has so far refused to reconsider its decision.”

The second reason given for refusing to air the appeal is, however, the more contentious.

Impartiality

“We concluded that we could not broadcast a free-standing appeal, no matter how carefully constructed, without running the risk of reducing public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in its wider coverage of the story,” explained Thompson.


It is against this assertion that the DEC and its supporters rallied outside the BBC buildings.

The BBC said the nature of the appeal vis-à-vis the conflict will necessarily appear one sided, since there are ongoing negotiations between parties around what can be brought into the Gaza Strip and who will have control over it once it is there.

Such a campaign, “could be interpreted as taking a political stance on an ongoing story,” according to Thompson.

A report in the Palestinian Al-Safeer Economic Newspaper, “the fact that the casualties of the conflict have fallen overwhelmingly on one side - the Palestinian Gazan side at a ratio of around 100 to .” Journalist Peter Chonka expressed indignantly that the issue of imbalanced casualties “is seemingly irrelevant in this question of impartiality.”

Media Coverage of Gaza

The issue rising at the BBC is one example of issues raised in the media and general public over coverage of Gaza in general.

Since international reporters were not permitted to enter Gaza more than a month and a half in advance of the Israeli onslaught, only a few internationals were actually in the Strip when the fighting broke out.

While several international news agencies employ local journalists in Gaza, they are still often accused of being impartial in their coverage because they are Palestinian.

Throughout the war Israeli government offices offered tours of the “Gaza border areas” to the international press, including a visit to the Sderot Rocket Museum and interviews with families in the western Negev who had been affected by Palestinian projectile fire.

During the war on Gaza the international press was stationed on the Israeli side of the border wall, with free access to Israeli commentators and spokespeople.

According to Chonka, BBC coverage lacks “any contextual discussion of the blockade of Gaza.” Other accusations include that reporting “generally relied on the narrative expressed by various Israeli spokesmen and women who are given a remarkably open platform to define the terms of the debate.”

It is the very existence of this debate on moral equivalency, Palestinian supporters in Britain argue, which allows the Israelis the space to execute their strategic aims and deflect criticism of their methods.

International Federation of Journalists

The IFJ sent a delegation to Gaza as soon as they could enter the area, to document crimes against civilians and human rights violations. On concluding their emergency mission, they recommended “A full investigation by the United Nations of targeting of media by Israel in violation of international law.”

Head of the delegation Aiden White also noted “Israel has much to answer for and must be held accountable by the international community.”