"The United Nations believes up to 150,000 civilians are trapped in northern Sri Lanka and the Tamils claim they are being subjected to human rights abuses.... The United Nations says more than 2,800 civilians may have been killed and 7,000 others injured in the fighting in the north-east in the last two months. The Sri Lankan government disputes these figures."
I say "practically nowhere" because if you relied upon the BBC news for your knowledge of world affairs the Sri Lankan civil war might well have passed you by. You would be very well informed of every Israeli incursion, you would have heard endless coverage of claims that the Israelis were bombing innocent civilians, you would have heard many tear-jerking reports from the "hell-hole that is Gaza", you would have heard the coverage of every claim of Israeli brutality and of course you would have heard from all the pro-Palestinian groups whose job it is to bad-mouth Israel; all of this coverage would have been lead by BBC reporters who see their role to denigrate Israel and protect the reputation of the Palestinian terrorist organisations.
In February I reported upon Baroness Deech's comments in the House of Lords:
"No one can accuse this House of not focusing on the distressing situation in Gaza. In the past 12 months, there have been 161 Questions and Statements about Israel, Gaza and the Palestinians compared with, for example, 33 on Sri Lanka and 24 on Tibet. I mention Sri Lanka in particular because noble Lords will be aware that recently there was a well attended protest in Parliament Square about the terrible attacks on the Tamils, the hospitals under siege, the killing of 70,000 people and the many more thousands who are trapped and displaced from their homes. This has attracted little opprobrium and no calls for the obliteration of Sri Lanka or talk of its brutalisation."The BBC, so far as I can tell, did not report this speech, I wonder why?
In January I blogged about numbers and asked:
"What are these numbers?
5.4 million
400,000
65,000
3,400
1,000
Any ideas?
Well:
5.4 million is the number of people killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo since a 1998 civil war began. That war continues today despite numerous peace treaties.
400,000 is the number of people killed in the Darfur region of the Sudan since a 2003 outbreak of violence between the government-backed Janjaweed militias and the secular "rebels" of the region. Approximately 100 additional people were killed there a few of weeks ago. Fighting continues in Darfur today.
65,000 is the number of Sri Lankans killed since the late 1980s, most of which have been civilians. During the war in Gaza, the Sri Lankan government forces overran the last stronghold of the Tamil Tigers -- a group considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government -- at the expense of dozens of civilians. Approximately 50,000 government troops are currently advancing through the jungle, taking aim at the rebels.
3,400 is a conservative estimate of the number of Palestinians killed by the Jordanian government in the span of 11 days during the Black September Jordanian civil war of 1970. Palestinian estimates claimed more than 20,000 dead.
1,000 is the number of Palestinians killed as of Jan. 15 in Israel's current war of self-defense against Hamas, the vast majority of which have been terrorists.
Yet it is Israel that is condemned by the U.N., the Vatican, and the rest of the world. It is Jews that are attacked all over Europe."
And in March I mused on the BBC's coverage (or rather lack of coverage) of the war in Sri Lanka:
"Today I read an analysis article on Honest Reporting that expands upon this point, here's the set-up:
"Comparison With Conflict in Sri Lanka
It is extremely appropriate to highlight the BBC's coverage of the Middle East considering the importance that the BBC attaches to the region. During the conflict, the BBC published, on average, 4.5 articles every day dealing with the fighting. In contrast, BBC coverage of the Sri Lankan government's campaign against the Tamil Tigers group -- a conflict that resulted in an estimated 2,000 civilian deaths in January of 2009 -- produced barely one article a day.
According to human rights organizations, the conflict in Sri Lanka includes intentional attacks by both sides on civilians, attacks on hospitals (twenty attacks from December through February alone), and the use of human shields. Yet the BBC gives this conflict, estimated to have resulted in hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, less than one quarter the average daily coverage of the Gaza conflict. If the BBC is going to focus this much on Gaza, it must expect scrutiny of that coverage.""
The BBC world view is oddly biased against Israel; how many other country's leaders indiscretions become headline news on the BBC? The USA, France, Italy, maybe a few others but Israel always. The BBC seem to lose no time in highlighting any story that shows Israel in a negative light and hiding away any positive stories. Millions die in the DRC and the BBC coverage is muted, hundreds of thousands die in the Sudan and the BBC coverage is hardly wall to wall, tens of thousands die in Sri Lanka and the BBC coverage is minimal, thousands die in conflicts all over the world and nary a mention on the BBC; but when one Palestinian is shot as he drives his car at an Israeli police line the BBC cover the story with all due reverence for the Palestinian and plenty of background to show why Israel is in the wrong.
The BBC is institutionally anti-Israel and that is why they are fighting so hard to prevent the Balen report from being published.
2 comments:
There has always been a lack of perspective in the media. I'm not sure if the imbalance in coverage is driven by an anti-Israeli position, or simply from the fact that the public is more engaged with that issue, hence the demand for articles on the Middle-East situation is disproportionately high.
Media institutions are generally also trapped by their own narratives and the low attention span of the casual news consumer (which is most of us).
If they start a narrative saying that Israel is abusing Palestine, then people are generally more willing to follow stories which keep that narrative simple.
Bringing in multiple arguments complicate the long running story hence turn off the reader, who doesn't have the time nor resources to expend on pursuing the multiple threads of that story.
Dear blogger,
Thank you for posting this blog about the lack of coverage on this bloody war in Sri Lanka. It's sad to see that the Tamil community has been forced to block roads to get attention while there is no protest for someone to seek a solution to the Mideast problem because everyday it's a headline. Where's humanity?
People are so disturbed by getting home one or 2 hours late. How bout waiting by the phone for someone to call and say your relative died in a shelling in the government designated "safe zone"?
It hurts. I'm only a 16 year old high school student but it hurts inside to know that humanity has just disappeared into the dust. The reason noone cares about the war in Sri Lanka is because it's a poor country. There's no oil, gold, or anything of much interest. The politicians play along as if they care. For example April 7 was the 15th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide and Canada's 2nd annual Prevention of Genocide day and that is when this Tamil protest started. The Tory government said they would not communicate with this group bearing the flag of a "banned organization". Apparently the Tamils national flag of Tamil Eelam is a terrorist flag. Well that would make Sri Lanka's flag a terrorist flag as well wouldn't it as it associates with Tamils?
These people in my community are so desperate and many have vowed to go continue a hunger strike. Two jamp into the Thames River in Britain and about 8 individuals self-immolated themselves including one in front of the United Nations.
The world has closed their eyes. It's sad and it hurts. If blocking roads is what is going to bring attention to this problem, so it will be. People going from work at least have families to go home to, we don't. I've personally lost 38 members of my family. I'm scared to go back to Sri Lanka. I fear persecution for being born a Tamil.
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