Or Do We Ignore Them? Email Reveals BBC Contempt For Public Complaints

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Sat, 19 Feb 2005 14:58:57 UT

 

 

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Or Do We Ignore Them? Email Reveals BBC Contempt For Public

Complaints

 

 

 

 

 

MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media

 

February 19, 2005

 

 

RAPID RESPONSE MEDIA ALERT: OR DO WE IGNORE THEM?

 

Email Reveals BBC Contempt For Public Complaints

 

 

In a world of terrible suffering and injustice, many of us cling to the

hope that journalists will have the integrity and compassion to report

honestly. Above all, this means standing up for the defenceless and

crushed against those who would rather we did not know and did not care.

 

On February 17, a Media Lens reader followed up an unanswered complaint

he had sent to Judy Swallow, presenter of the BBC's World Service

Newshour programme. The email contained important testimony relating to

US-UK war crimes during attacks on Fallujah. This, in full, is what was

sent:

 

Dear Judy Swallow,

 

As you haven't responded to my email of 13.02 regarding BBC coverage of

events in Fallujah, I thought perhaps you needed more examples of the

things that the BBC has so far failed to mention. I would really be

interested to hear your views on these stories. Do you think they are

untrue, or insignificant? If so, on what grounds? And if not, how can you

defend your job within an organization that is continuing to mislead the

public about US/UK war crimes in Iraq?

 

Best wishes,

 

[Name Withheld]

 

These extracts are taken from " Remembering The First Siege Of Fallujah:

Excerpts From Testimony Submitted To The World Tribunal On Iraq, " by

Omar Khan and Dahr Jamail (February 14, 2005), available at zmag.org:

 

" ...three of my friends agreed to ride out on the one functioning

ambulance for the clinic to retrieve the wounded. Although the ambulance

already had three bullet holes from a U.S. sniper through the front

windshield on the driver's side, the fact that two of them are

westerners was

the only hope that soldiers would allow them to retrieve more wounded

Iraqis. The previous driver was wounded when one of the snipers shots

grazed his head. What I can report from Falluja is that there is no

ceasefire, and apparently never was. Iraqi women and children are

being shot

by American snipers.

 

Over 600 Iraqis have been killed by American aggression, and the

residents have turned two football fields into graveyards. Ambulances are

being shot by the Americans. And now they are preparing to launch a full

scale invasion of the city. This is difficult for me to see,

particularly after being there yesterday and seeing an ambulance with

3 bullet

holes in the driver's side of the windshield. Seeing slain women and

children, elderly, unarmed people. All killed and/or wounded by American

snipers. In the last week there have been over 600 Iraqis slain in

Falluja

alone, with thousands more wounded. "

 

" The Americans shot out the lights in the front of our hospital, they

prevented doctors from reaching the emergency unit at the hospital, and

we quickly began to run out of supplies and much needed medications.

One of my doctors in Falluja asked the Americans there if he could remove

a wounded patient from the city. The soldier wouldn't let him move the

victim, and said, " We have dead soldiers here too. This is a war zone. "

The doctor wasn't allowed to remove the wounded man, and he died. So

many doctors and ambulances have been turned back from checkpoints

there. "

 

Dr. Abdul Jabbar reported that " Many people were injured and killed by

cluster bombs. Of course they used cluster bombs-we heard them, as well

as treated people who had been hit by them. " Dr. Rashid agreed, saying,

" I saw the cluster bombs with my own eyes. We don't need any evidence.

Most of these bombs fell on the families. The fighters-they know how to

escape. But not the civilians. " He added: " Not less than 60% of the

dead were women and children. You can go see the graves for yourself. "

 

At Noman Hospital in Al-Adhamiya, a doctor there too said of the people

who came in from Fallujah from ten days earlier, that " most were

children, women and elderly. " At Yarmouk Hospital, a lead doctor

reported that

he saw American soldiers killing women and children, calling the

situation in Fallujah " a massacre. "

 

....according to one Fallujah resident, who after having escaped to

Baghdad testified that US warplanes were bombing the city heavily

prior to

his departure, and that Marine snipers continued to secure residents of

the besieged city, shot by shot. " There were so many snipers, anyone

leaving their house was killed. "

 

A doctor working in a temporary emergency clinic in Fallujah during

April's siege posed a question on Democracy Now!, which he repeated:

" When

you see a child five years old with no head what can you say? When you

see a child with no brain just an open cavity what can you say? When

you see a mother just hold her infant with no head and the shells are all

over her body? " (Email forwarded to Media Lens, February 19, 2005)

 

Although harrowing, this email was rational and restrained, and

contained credible evidence relating to issues that could hardly be more

serious. Judy Swallow answered our reader with an email that was

presumably

intended for a colleague:

 

" Oh god mike - do you take care of these sorts of things, or do we

ignore them? " (Forwarded to Media Lens, February 19, 2005)

 

On the BBC website Swallow describes Newshour as " exposing injustice

and challenging lies " .

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/worldservice/judyswallow.sht\

ml)

 

What does it say when a senior BBC journalist can dismiss testimony

relating to our government's involvement in war crimes as merely " these

sorts of things " ? And what does it say that a journalist can suggest that

it might be an option to simply ignore a public complaint of such

seriousness?

 

Of course, it might be objected that this is an isolated case; that we

are being unfairly harsh. But it is not isolated - we have received

numerous examples of exactly this kind of high-handed, dismissive

response

from journalists right across the media both personally and forwarded

to us by readers.

 

In truth, this is a perfect example of how the media's power without

responsibility has resulted in an arrogant, elitist system which views

the public with barely disguised contempt.

 

 

SUGGESTED ACTION

 

The goal of Media Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and

respect for others. In writing letters to journalists, we strongly urge

readers to maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone.

 

Write to the following BBC journalists and managers. Ask them how a

senior BBC journalist can suggest ignoring a sincere and reasoned

complaint relating to war crimes committed by the British government.

 

Judy Swallow, presenter of Newshour

Email: judy.swallow

 

Mike Finnerty, editor of Newshour

Email: mike.finnerty

 

Nigel Chapman, director BBC World Service

Email: nigel.chapman

 

Mark Thompson, BBC director general

Email: mark.thompson

 

Michael Grade, BBC chairman

Email: michael.grade

 

Register a complaint at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complaints_process.shtml#code

 

Please also send all emails to us at Media Lens:

Email: editor

 

This is a free service. However, financial support is vital. Currently

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