The BBC’s Arabic Opiate
In a new study, BBC Watch warns about the hazardous composition of BBC’s opiate for its Arabic radio listeners.
The findings regarding the station’s main news program during the period of the 2006 Lebanon war are troubling:
The airtime given by BBC Arabic to the pro Hizbollah position outweighed that given to the pro Israel position by a ratio of some 4.5 to 1.
What was more surprising was the very marked anti-American sentiment which we detected. Many programme guests expressed blatantly and viciously anti-American positions . . . . While this unto itself may be acceptable and even desirable in a free press, the latitude afforded to these guests in sharing their sentiments, the highly evident disproportion in the representation of such views and the relative absence of challenge of these views in a manner which would conform with journalistic principles of impartiality and balance prompt serious concern. . .
What emerges is a BBC which is providing a solid and respectable platform for anti-Western ideologues. . .
Any questions?
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