BBC ignores Hezbollah threat to Israeli tourists

Just Journalism
29 April '10

Yesterday, Egypt convicted 26 men for planning attacks in Egypt and being linked to Hezbollah. They had been arrested in 2008/2009 on suspicion of planning to strike against tourist sites, popular with Israelis. In its reporting of the development, the BBC website, however, excluded this obvious Israeli connection in favour of highlighting Hezbollah’s opposition to Egypt’s support for the Israeli-led blockade of Gaza.

In ‘Egypt sentences 'Hezbollah cell'’ (Wednesday 28 April), the opening paragraph noted that they were convicted of ‘planning terrorist attacks on ships and tourist sites.’ No further information was given, except that prosecutors had claimed that ‘Hezbollah had told the men to collect intelligence from villages along the Egypt-Gaza border, tourist sites and the Suez Canal.’ That these tourist sites are known locally to be popular with Israelis on vacation was not mentioned.

Instead, the article focused on the relationship between Hezbollah and Egypt, with the final two paragraphs reading as follows:

‘Hezbollah has said the charges are politically motivated and in revenge for the movement's stance on Egypt's support for the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

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