Gaza siege: Western media bias and crumbling public trust
"I feel the BBC's reporting is atrocious. The fact that it does not recognise Hamas as a terror organisation requires a complete legal battle and public battle. It's unbelievable... There has to be an outcry so that there will be a correction and Hamas is defined as a terrorist organisation. What else do they need to see to understand that this is an atrocious terrorist organisation?"
These were the exact words of Israel President Isaac Herzog as he incessantly ranted to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during the latter's recent visit to Israel, and tried to coerce the news organisation into feeding the audience further pro-Israel narratives.
Far from BBC being a mouthpiece for Palestine, it is not even balanced in curating its narratives on the actual massacre unfolding in Gaza. It has grilled the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot and tried to force him into equating the actions of Hamas to Israel's, once by BBC presenter Lewis Vaughan Jones and then by Newsnight interviewer Kirsty Wark. The latter nailed Zomlot against the wall, despite being aware that his extended family had perished in Israeli pounding of Gaza. Their reporting has also been very measured, presenting Israel as the victim, despite the rogue state killing more than 1,000 children in the ongoing Operation Iron Swords.
In fact, the BBC had to openly apologise for its "mistake" in the reporting of the al-Ahli Arab Hospital bombing, which Israel initially claimed responsibility for and then suddenly blamed it on Islamic Jihad misfiring. Although the BBC never once said Israel carried out the attack; nonetheless, it had to apologise. "The correspondent (Jon Donnison) was wrong to speculate about the cause of the explosion of the hospital... At no stage did he actually say it was caused by the Israelis… but nonetheless, when the impression is left that we've speculated, (it) is important to correct that which we've done," explained Deputy Chief Executive of BBC News Jonathan Munro. This too happened in the wake of Rishi Sunak's public dressing-down by Isaac Herzog, who demanded "correction" of the BBC's coverage.
The BBC cowering in the face of irrational Israeli government demands shows how once-credible media houses are slowly having to compromise with their values and work ethic, resulting in the curation of carefully planned one-sided content so as to not antagonise powerful quarters.
What the BBC, along with other Western media houses, need to understand is that there can be no equating between the coloniser and the colonised, because of the inherent nature of power imbalance between the two. Israel will always be the land encroacher, subjugator, oppressor and mass killer, while Palestine will be the resistance force, failed by the international community, including the UN, but still fighting for its legitimate right to self-determination.
What the BBC, along with other Western media houses, need to understand is that there can be no equating between the coloniser and the colonised, because of the inherent nature of power imbalance between the two. Israel will always be the land encroacher, subjugator, oppressor and mass killer, while Palestine will be the resistance force, failed by the international community, including the UN, but still fighting for its legitimate right to self-determination.
While the West might live in a delusional bubble where it still feels that it can mould public perception on burning political issues, in the fast-paced world of mobile journalism, with social media becoming the disseminating platforms and information easily spreading like wildfire, there is little possibility of people buying self-censored, biassed and curated content. No doubt there are downsides to both mobile and social media journalism, which expose people to the threats of misinformation and disinformation campaigns by vested quarters. We have seen doctored content resulting in uproars and mayhem over nothing, even in Bangladesh. But when "credible" media houses take on a compromised approach, it leaves people with very little choice in selecting where to get "unfiltered" information from, making them easy prey for cyber criminals.
US President Joe Biden has also recently fallen for such a disinformation campaign. He claimed that he had seen "confirmed" photos of Israeli babies beheaded by Hamas while meeting Jewish leaders at the White House. "I never really thought that I would see, have confirmed, pictures of terrorists beheading children," he lamented.
This was a false information propaganda by Israeli media, trying to ignite public emotions against Palestine. Even the White House later acknowledged and suggested that Biden had made the incorrect claims without seeing any such photos himself, solely based on the Israeli media reports and Netanyahu-aide narratives. But the damage had already been done: hatred for Palestinians fuelled further, and Israel was given the vindication and validation by the leader of the free world to unleash massacre on the innocent Gaza civilians.
Anyone who has followed world history since mediaeval times – when Jewish people, subjected to antisemitic treatment by the European powers, had to seek shelter in the New World from European persecution – would be aware of the deep-rooted ties the Jewish community shares with the United States. With time, even Europe warmed up to the community and its right to a dignified life. With the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the British government officially made known its support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestinian lands.
Since then, in stages, Israel – with blessings of the West – drove the Palestinians from their homeland, to make a state for themselves. For more than seven decades now, Palestinians have been enduring statelessness, massacres, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, with the West failing to take any action to ensure the Palestinians' right to a dignified life.
While previous generations were not as proactively involved in activism to end the persecution of the Palestinians – as most grew up passively knowing that there is a festering conflict in the Middle East, with the region having become a byword for volatility, unrest, bloodshed – people now, empowered with information tools, can see through the pro-Israel bias of the Westen governments and their so-called free press.
While at the policy level, the Western governments are losing their credibility to speak or act on the issue of Palestine – with Biden not only making false claims, but also asking Americans to pay for the massacre of the Palestinians in the form of additional billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, and France and Germany banning pro-Palestinian protests while empowering Ukrainians to fight Russia with weapons – the Western media is also losing credibility among the audience.
Itself controversial for its pro-Israeli narratives, The New York Times recently reported, "Trust in mainstream news outlets has eroded, too, with news organizations regularly accused of refracting state, corporate or political interests." A Pew Research Center survey last year suggested that the under-30 population in the US trust social media as much as traditional media.
Media stalwarts like the BBC should not be forced to pay heed to the rants of the rogue president of a rogue state. The Western governments, for their own greater wellbeing and future security, should revisit their actions and encourage their press to report without fear or favour, without having to take a side, or mince their words.
Instead of suppressing the democratic right of freedom of speech, these governments should encourage their people to speak their minds. If the people's arguments are incorrect, they should be countered with logic and reason, rather than one-sided blanket suppression. Such coercive actions will further erode the trust of the people in their government and in the free press.
It is high time the Western governments reflected on how they are ensuring press freedom in their own countries to regain public trust.
Tasneem Tayeb is a columnist for The Daily Star. Her X handle is @tasneem_tayeb
Views in this article are the author's own.
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