BBC News coverage of terrorism – August 2015

The Israel Security Agency’s report on terror attacks during August 2015 (Hebrew – here) shows that throughout the month a total of 171 incidents took place: 117 in Judea & Samaria, 51 in Jerusalem and three incidents of missile fire from the Gaza Strip.

The agency recorded 136 attacks with petrol bombs, five stabbings, four shooting attacks, one vehicular attack and 22 attacks using explosive devices. Twelve Israelis were wounded in those attacks – four civilians and eight members of the security forces.

The three incidents of missile fire from the Gaza Strip were not reported by BBC News but the Israeli response to the August 7th attack did receive coverage on the BBC Arabic website and the same pattern of Arabic only coverage was also seen on August 27th.

The firebomb attack on a civilian vehicle travelling near Beit Hanina junction on August 3rd in which two people were injured did not receive any BBC coverage.

A vehicular attack near Shilo on August 6th in which three soldiers were injured received no coverage in English but was reported on the BBC Arabic website.

 Five separate stabbing incidents resulting in injuries to one civilian and four soldiers were all ignored by BBC News. There was no BBC coverage of an attack with an IED near Beit Jala on August 19th in which a soldier was wounded and a drive-by shooting attack near Kedumim on August 30th in which a civilian was injured was likewise disregarded.

To sum up, visitors to the BBC News English language website did not receive any information whatsoever about any of the 171 terror attacks which took place during August.

Table terror Aug 15Since the beginning of the year BBC News has reported just 0.81% of the terror attacks which have actually taken place. Its record on coverage of Israeli fatalities stands at 0% whilst 100% of Palestinian fatalities have been reported.

As has been noted here before, the BBC Trust’s definition of the corporation’s public purpose remit titled ‘Global Outlook’ states:

“BBC viewers, listeners and users can rely on the BBC to provide internationally respected news services to audiences around the world and they can expect the BBC to keep them in touch with what is going on in the world, giving insight into the way people live in other countries.”

Clearly that pledge is not being met with regard to terrorism against Israelis and the knock-on effect of that omission is that audiences are unable to comprehend the context to the Israeli counter-terrorism measures such as border restrictions, the anti-terrorist fence or checkpoints which do feature extensively and regularly in BBC content.

Related Articles:

BBC News coverage of terrorism – July 2015

BBC News coverage of terrorism in Israel – June 2015 & Q2 2015

 

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