is an interesting article on BBC News Online about the extortion of ‘protection’ money by Basque terrorists in Spain. In typical BBC style the article finishes off with some relevant background details:
The raids on 3 October which resulted in key arrests, including suspected Eta leader Mikel Albizu, have also led to the capture of a large quantity of weapons.
On Sunday, two arms caches containing mortars, dynamite, anti-tank rocket launchers, guns, ammunition and assault weapons, detonators and documents were discovered in southwestern France.
Eta has been fighting for more than 30 years for an independent Basque state.
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to have been space available (or perhaps it’s a lack of knowledge or effort on the part of the ‘journalist’) to add the small detail that the 30 year fight to which he or she refers has involved the murder, sorry Beeboids, ‘killing’, of more than 800 people.
Did the BBC call ETA terrorists or did it refer to them as militants as they do of Iraqi Jihadi’s who kill and maim innocent people with thier indescriminate car bombings and other assorted methods of dealing out death to innocents. The BBC has a serious issue to sort out with the issue of correctly naming a terrorist as a terrorist and not a ‘militant’. note BBC style sneer qoutes.
As far as the BBC are concerned the only real “terrorists” in the world are the armed forces of the USA, UK & Israel (the most hated of all by the BBC)
The BBC have been running the Casino story higher up the news agenda (BBC Radio 5 phone in this morning) rather than Tony Bliar sending hundreds of British soldiers off to slaughter.
Mind you wait till some Iraqi “militant” complains to a BBC camera that the British bayoneted his pregnant wife, the British army will be top of the news then.
Whilst it might be a good idea to have 10,000 words on the history of the Basque separatist movement that’s not really possible in the context of a brief news story.
Or are you suggesting that the BBC should detail terrorist atrocities for shock horror value without providing any further context?
THFC • 10,000 word essays aren’t needed. How about “ETA is responsible for the murder of over 800 people”? Ten words – just 0.1% of the “quota” and within reason even for a brief news story.
People seem to forget that ETA kills and bombs in a country with full democratic rights. If their cause is so justified there is nothing to stop them pursuing it peacefully via the ballot box.
That last comment was me – not sure why I became “anonymous”.