BBC bias in the treatment of stories about Sri Lanka and Israel

Ignoring for now the comparative rights and wrongs of Sri Lankas fight against the Tamil Tigers and Israel's fight against assorted Palestinian terrorists one thing is abundantly clear. The BBC's coveageof the Sri Lankan army's alleged killing of 91 civilians in a temporary hospital in a very different way to the way they cover any attack by Israel under similar circumstances. The headline is "Hospital 'hit by Sri Lankan army' " leaving some doubt over whether the attack was even by the Sri Lankan army, no such doubt is allowed to intrude into the BBC's regular demonisation of the Israeli army and indeed Israel. The first line of the report "Sri Lankan military says it has not been using heavy weapons in the area" lets the reader know that there is some confusion and two sides to the story, I cannot think of an equivalent story about Israel that gives the Israeli side of the case so early in the reporting. THe claim of 91 deaths is couched in cautious language

"The Sri Lankan army has killed 91 people at a makeshift hospital inside a civilian safe zone in the last two days, two doctors have told the BBC.

The doctors said bombardments from the army had killed 64 people on Saturday, including patients, their relatives and bystanders in Mullivaikal.

About 87 people were injured. Another 27 people reportedly died on Friday."

And then the Sri Lankan army is allowed another rebuttal;

"The army has denied bombing the hospital, saying that Tamil Tiger rebels carried out suicide attacks."

On the BBC one Country is always guilty unless proved otherwise and that is Israel, other countries are allowed a degree of presumption of innocence.


Of course there is another huge difference between he coverage of this story and that of any similar Israeli attack. This story is Web site front page news but not the top story, if it had been Israel then it would have been the lead and every newscast would have been full of the usual suspects fulminating against Israel's iniquities.