Living as I do in Northern Ireland, it has been my long held contention that the BBC operates here as if it were part of a foreign broadcasting corporation. Of course Biased BBC readers living elsewhere in the UK may feel similarly! But I draw your attention to this story, given all due prominence on the BBC Northern Ireland news page today. As you will see, it has absolutely nothing to do with Northern Ireland, and concerns itself exclusively with the financial shenanigans of those in the government of the Irish Republic. It is, by NO definition, a Northern Ireland story. But yet there is it on the Northern Ireland news page. The BBC operates a harmonisation policy when it comes to matters concerning the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. These are treated as if they are all local stories, so facilitating the UK and Irish government agenda of gradualised de facto, if not de jure, unification. The truth of the matter is that this news report concerns a foreign government and it is NOT a UK story. But the dark green-tinged glasses through which the BBC views news sees it all very differently.
A QUESTION OF IDENTITY.
Bookmark the permalink.
FRom Belfast Telegraph this morning
A DUP MP has claimed the Chief Constable encouraged him to raise criticisms of the BBC at Westminster.
DUP MP Sammy Wilson attacked the corporation for “promoting terrorism” in Northern Ireland during a stinging attack in the House of Commons.
He made his comments after four BBC journalists were arrested during an investigation into the Real IRA.
He told the Commons: “Last week the security forces in Northern Ireland were on high alert for a Real IRA offensive.
“At the same time four BBC journalists were arrested in the presence of leading Real IRA activists on their way to a promotion of a show of strength.
“Given that the BBC is a publicly-funded body, would you make time for a debate so this House can join with the Chief Constable in expressing its outrage at the BBC first of all promoting terrorism at a time when we are trying to bury it in Northern Ireland and in pursuing sensational stories instead of pursuing stability in Northern Ireland.”
I read this with an increasingly incredulous expression!! What is this before me, it’ a throw back to the days of a protestant state for a protestant people. For God sake David, read some up to date literature, we HAVE MOVED ON from there to something a little more balanced for Roman Catholics in their own land. A shared future for BOTH traditions. As I already said, if you still think like this too late, you ought to have gotten in there at the time and did the work, instead of turning tail and running away for fear of being near the ‘unclean thing’.
There are cross border bodies now, and Dublin plays a role here, Fianna Fail is recruiting here, and it doesn’t seem to bother unionists, why should a story on BBC annoy anyone.
For anyone interested Brendan Duddy who played a central role in the negotations, and put his life and that of his family on the line, Peter Taylor did a magnificent show on him last night on BBC 2. What a guy!! Surely he is now in for recognition publicly. When a chip shop owner can negotiate peace, anyone can negotiate. link
The BBC are still looking into the matter of the journalists, NRG. Sammy ‘bare arse’ knows rightly the BBC were not promoting terrorism, but screening an insight programme, which I take it you’ve watched in the past. It’s called investigative journalism.
Why didn’t you blog about the BBC rumoured move to the Titanic quarter which will cost the taxpayer, instead of this story, where ‘bias’ is more in the blogging of it, than the reporting of it David?
And they couldn’t even get the bloody headline right!
“Ministers concern on Ahern money”, should be “Ministers’ concern…”
Typhoo –
“There are cross border bodies now, and Dublin plays a role here, Fianna Fail is recruiting here, and it doesn’t seem to bother unionists, why should a story on BBC annoy anyone.”
Possibly true, but there are any number of ‘cross border’ EU bodies operaing in the UK, but French, German and Italian etc. news is still covered separately, not lumped under UK.
Miv, I believe (but bow to David’s superior knowledge) that these cross border bodies – are enshrined here as part of devoloution. No cross border bodies, no executive, no executive no assembly. It’s all wrapped up as one here, where as the EU bodies in the rest of the UK would have a different status entirely.
Miv Tucker:
And they couldn’t even get the bloody headline right!
“Ministers concern on Ahern money”, should be “Ministers’ concern…”
Miv Tucker | 28.03.08 – 11:52 am | #
lol miv look at this letter sent to a local newspaper:
I notice an old 1970s photograph (March 18)in which a poster from a paramilitary group demands ‘itegrated education’.
Maybe an education in the spelling of ‘integrated’
would have been a starting point.
Raymond Murray
Lurgan
LOL apologies for going off topic.
Typhoo, to be honest it’s you who needs to put aside your politics. David’s complaint that this is an Irish story and should be in the Europe section is perfectly valid. There is little point on having a Northern Irish Section and then lumping in anything big across the border. The fact that there are cross-border bodies is irrelevant. There’s plenty of those between England and the rest of the UK, but staff are still able to distinguish stories that are Welsh, Scottish or English.
Hugh,
Thank you for spelling out the point. The politics of a foreign State should not be presented by the BBC as if it was part of our British affairs. This is bias, pure and simple, and perhaps more. It indicates that the BBC either has its own political agenda (perish the thought) OR the BBC is insinutaing that Northern Ireland is not part of the UK in the same way as England, Scotland or Wales. Should some-one tell nice Mr “Britishness” Brown?
My posts are disappearing!!
Hugh perhaps you fail to realise the nature of the set up we have here. Ulster television broadcasts this foreign ‘Ireland’ story, and this one too. The mutual reciprocation I mentioned is on the RTE website under ‘Ireland’i.e. this
David well knows this.;-)
‘OR the BBC is insinutaing that Northern Ireland is not part of the UK in the same way as England, Scotland or Wales’
Was it ever? Behave yourself. You blogged this morning on Straws exclusion of NI from the proposed flag regulations, we were airbrushed out of the union defence by Brown according to Mark Davenport, if Irish citizens lose the right to vote in the UK, it won’t apply to those exercising the right under the GFA, and Mary McAleese in NI telling the Queen she can go down south if they’re all good boys and girls and deliver P&J powers…..
‘The politics of a foreign State should not be presented by the BBC as if it was part of our British affairs.’
You know as much as anyone else David, that BBC ‘NI’ is a completely different animal due to the set up here. Thats not MY politics that is FACT.
Has BBC NI a different charter to the rest of the BBC?
Is it not reliant on the British taxpayer?
THAT is the key fact, and if it chooses to present Foreign news stories as British news then it must be held to account.
Other commercial organisations can behave as they wish, the BBC is funded by the license-fee payer and so must be held to a different standard.
Can we look forward to what’s happening in French politics being presented as part of BBC London/South news agenda? How about the Netherlands top political issues popping up on Midlands/East? Maybe plucky Norway can expect BBC North to show an interest in its political machinations? Or is just the BBC in NI who get off their all-Ireland trip?
Sickeningly biased. 87 years since partition and the BBC still counts the Republic of Ireland as part of the UK.
‘Is it not reliant on the British taxpayer?’
It’s this pesky devoloution David….tisk!
We’re all friends now. Even ANOTHER one of Gerry Adams lads is revealed today as working for the British.link.
See republicans aren’t that bad 😉
Typhoo: I might suggest if either RTE or UTV had separate national sections for North and South of the Border they’d know where to file this story. As for understanding the situation there, I think I understand how the BBC website works: It’s got sections for Europe, Wales, Northern Ireland etc, and it files stories according to their geography. It’s really quite simple, surely. And Bertiegate really is, quite simply, an Irish story. Otherwise, why don’t we just bung it the UK page.
‘I think I understand how the BBC website works:’
Hugh, perhaps the BBC NI section is the exception to the rule? Do you know for sure it is not the exception?
If it’s designed so that you need inside knowledge to navigate it, that would be an odd approach for a public facing news website. Do you not think people are going to tend to draw certain assumptions on the basis that it’s called the Northern Ireland section? I’m in favour of the peace process, but your argument just seems ridiculous.
Hugh, read David’s post,
‘The BBC operates a harmonisation policy when it comes to matters concerning the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland’
He’s even telling you up front the BBC NI is not doing the same as the rest in the UK, and I’m telling you WHY.
Geddit? 😉
I expect it’s much simpler than that. The story comes from a BBC NI journalist, so I imagine BBC NI can pop it up on their bit of the website whenever they feel like it. If they tried to pop it onto the Europe bit of the website they’d have to hand it over to somebody else in London, who’d decide whether to run it. There’s nothing particularly odd about having a BBC NI journalist based in Dublin – the Irish government is relevant to NI. Similarly I assume there’s a BBC NI journalist (or twelve) on London. If a BBC NI journalist in London did a story about a new species of newt found in the Thames, it wouldn’t surprise me if that got on to the BBC NI bit of the website – cos that’ll be the bit that the journalist’s boss controls.
Typhoo: I don’t think David’s really saying that that’s the official and approved BBC line. I can’t imagine anyone at the BBC would say it is either. He’s pointing out how they seem operate in practice. As to why they do it, your explanation simply isn’t a good reason for failing to distinguish between the two. As I said, on the criteria you’ve laid out practically half the Welsh stories could end up on the English page.
Do you not think, given that this can be an emotive issue, the BBC might be better to stick to an objective yardstick such as geography in determining under which country’s pages to file stories?
‘ As I said, on the criteria you’ve laid out practically half the Welsh stories could end up on the English page. ‘
No Hugh. With devolution taking hold here there is what calls ‘harmonisation’ what i call reciprocity between the ROI and NI. Not so between England and Wales, since devolution there appears to be pushing the nations apart.
If the BBC as we think here follow the govt of the day, I’d say that would be also in line with their respective devolved governments…..
Thats what I’m getting at. Is it strictly correct to put it there no, its not. But this is happening in nearly ALL areas of public life here. Education, particularly along the border corridor, even some of our MLA’s live in the south. Health is the same. Reporting is no different, with many joint productions from long before the peace process was even heard of.
So to summarise it is entirely natural for the BBC to report on the affairs of a foreign country and claim it is home news. When I’m in London this weekend I just can’t wait to hear the latest news on what’s happening in la belle France….as London news.
Typhoo, actually you’re right that this seems to be a standard approach on the BBC website – so apologies there for doubting you. From a reporting point of view, I still don’t like it I’m afraid, but there’s no denying it seems to be official policy.
With numerous ferries and planes taking thousands of people between Northern Ireland and Scotland, the close gerographical proximity, the widespread family connections, the historical and cultrual connnections would it not be reasonable to expect that Scottish news and political stories are also part of the mix of BBC NI output.
They are pretty scant by comparision to the extensive coverage devoted to Irish issues – substantive and non-stories.
NRG,
Oddly enough, I can’t recall BBC NI regaling us with endless stories as to the latest news from Galloway..but if it’s an IRISH county, why hold the front page. Maybe if Scotland ever leaves the UK we can then look forward to in -depth reporting.
‘ Maybe if Scotland ever leaves the UK we can then look forward to in -depth reporting’
Maybe you won’t have long to wait David, enjoy London, and try to avoid terminal 5 😉
I have just moved back to Northern Ireland, and I just cannot be bothered watching the local BBC news. After nearly 7 years in England, the local news seems to be in a timewarp. Typical BBC.
This is becoming a parody.
Joel,
You already are one
Joel: This is becoming a parody.
Yes, after all what could anyone have against failing to recognise the North and South of Ireland as separate countries? It’s hardly the sort of thing people get really agitated about is it?