Real investigative reporting of its own? What a novel idea for the BBC

...Were the BBC – and Yolande Knell in particular – to cease the lazy and damaging practice of rote amplification of the political agenda of compromised NGOs and aid agencies (rather than doing any real investigative reporting of its own), it might actually begin to meet the BBC’s remit to “build a global understanding of international issues” by ending the habitual whitewashing and soft portrayals of the Hamas regime which is responsible for the situation of the residents of the Gaza Strip.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
22 December '13..





The BBC Radio 4 programme ‘The World Tonight’ claims that:

“When it comes to daily news, The World Tonight takes international events seriously and covers them in depth. Using the BBC’s international network of correspondents we report on what is going on, put it in context and provide a forum for debate on the big issues facing us all.”

The December 20th edition of that programme included a report from the Gaza Strip by the BBC Jerusalem Bureau’s Yolande Knell – available for listening here from about 39:38.

Presenter David Eades introduces the segment:

“This week a powerful winter storm has swept across the eastern Med. In the Gaza Strip it’s inflicted further hardship on people already enduring power cuts for much of the day because of fuel shortages. Aid agencies are warning of a deteriorating humanitarian situation as Israel and Egypt impose tight border restrictions and divisions between the Hamas government and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank are exacerbating Gaza’s problems, as our correspondent Yolande Knell has been finding out.”

What exactly do those “tight border restrictions” touted by Eades entail? In fact the only restrictions in place are those prohibiting the import of weapons (as, one imagines, is the case at most international borders) and dual-use goods which can be used for military purposes to the Gaza Strip. Even those dual-use goods can be imported into the Gaza Strip with special co-ordination and on condition that their use is supervised. All other goods can enter the Gaza Strip freely. Eades, however, deliberately misleads listeners by failing to provide that vital context.

(Continue)

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