As readers may recall, in April (following a complaint from a member of the public) the BBC Complaints department supplied a new ‘explanation’ for the double standards seen in its reporting of terror attacks in different locations.
The complainant pointed out that while the corporation’s reporting on the attack in London on March 22nd rightly included use of the term ‘terror’ (as have subsequent reports on the more recent attacks in Manchester and London), BBC coverage of attacks by Palestinians in Israel does not describe those incidents as terrorism and the term is only seen in quotes – usually from Israeli officials.
The BBC’s response included the following ‘rationale’:
“Where there is an ongoing geopolitical conflict – as in the Middle East – to use the term “terror attack” or similar might be seen to be taking sides. There are those who might consider the actions of the Israeli government to be considered as terrorist acts.
In a situation where a country that is not involved in a direct physical combat comes under attack, it may be reasonable to construe that as a terrorist incident.
The use of such terminology is never an exact science but where a continuing conflict exists, it is reasonable that the BBC would not wish to appear to be taking sides.”
That argument is of course rendered ridiculous by the fact that the UK is part of the international coalition involved in the “continuing conflict” against ISIS in Iraq and Syria and another demonstration of the vacuous nature of that response from BBC Complaints recently came to light.
Like many other media organisations, over the last three years the BBC has on several occasions reported on Iranian involvement in “direct physical combat” with ISIS – for example:
‘Iranian attack jets deployed’ to help Iraq fight Isis
Iran jets bomb Islamic State targets in Iraq – Pentagon
What is Iran’s role in Iraqi fight against IS?
Tikrit: Iran key in fight to wrest city from IS
Iran ‘sending troops’ to fight Islamic State in Iraq
One would therefore expect that – given the BBC’s declared rule of thumb quoted above – its reporting on the attacks in Tehran on June 7th would not have included the term ‘terrorist’. Not so:
Related Articles:
BBC Complaints: terror attacks in Jerusalem and Tunisia are “very different”
BBC Complaints clarifies discrepancies in terminology when reporting terrorism
Radio 4 gives insight into BBC avoidance of the use of the term ‘terror’ in Israel
BBC News finds terror (without quotation marks) in Europe
