BBC News coverage of terrorism in Israel – October 2015 – part two

As was noted in part one of this post, most of the eleven fatalities resulting from terror attacks in Israel during October 2015 were reported by the BBC News website (where archive material becomes “historical record“) with the exception of one case in which a victim of an attack on October 13th succumbed to wounds sustained two weeks later.

The BBC News website’s reporting of non-fatal attacks resulting in injuries to the victims was notable for the fact that although it began reasonably well, it came to an unexplained halt three weeks into the month. Although the word terror was not used by the BBC in any of its many reports except when quoting others, attacks in which Israelis were wounded between October 1st and October 20th inclusive were for the most part reported, even if only briefly.

With the exception of attacks in Beit Shemesh on October 22nd and at the Jalame Crossing on October 24th which were also briefly reported, other attacks between October 21st and 31st in which Israelis were wounded (at least 20 incidents) did not get BBC coverage.

As noted above, seven missiles were fired from the Gaza Strip in five separate incidents during October 2015. The BBC News website reported two of those incidents on October 10 and October 11. Four shooting attacks (two by snipers), one attack with an anti-tank missile and one petrol bomb attack in the Gaza Strip border area were not mentioned in BBC coverage. 

The Israel Security Agency also recorded four incidents categorized as terror attacks by Jews: two cases in which vehicles belonging to Palestinians were torched and two stabbing attacks – one in Dimona on October 9th and one in Kiryat Ata on October 13th. Both those stabbing attacks were reported on the BBC News website – here and here.

Whilst the BBC obviously made efforts to report some of the attacks which took place during October 2015, audiences did not get a real sense of the scale of incidents with just 40 of the total 620 incidents having been reported or mentioned in BBC coverage.

Table Oct 15

As of the end of October 2015, the BBC had reported on 2.9% of the terror attacks which took place since the beginning of the year. Coverage of Israeli fatalities stood at 71% whilst 100% of Palestinian fatalities and 100% of foreign national fatalities have been reported.

Related Articles:

BBC News coverage of terrorism in Israel – September 2015 & Q3 2015

 

 

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