Due to pressure of work I have only just read this email which arrived last week from L Rogers of Zimbabwe. The BBC, to its credit, is now persona (organisatia?) non grata in Zimbabwe. It was not always so. Mr Rogers writes: My own experience with the BBC arises from the events in Zimbabwe concerning the “so-called” Land Question. I hope you will not find it too lengthy. If you … Continue reading →

for “Best British Blog” in the Weblog Awards. I feel a certain conflict of interest writing this because I also write for Samizdata, another contender. And, dash it, there are many other fine blogs listed, such as all of them. So, er, vote for someone! Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

BBC News 24’s Straight Talk programme (presumably so-named to contrast with the BBC’s normal kind of talk) this weekend follows the usual format of a presenter, James Landale, and three journalists, Jackie Ashley of The Guardian, George Pascoe-Watson of The Sun and Michael Brown of The Independent, discussing current topics (although with Bonking Blunkett on the agenda this week, current affairs might be more apt). Both of this week’s topics, … Continue reading →

that “people should be allowed to use what force is necessary and they should be allowed to do so without any risk of prosecution” have provoked one of the BBC’s regular [Don’t] Have Your Say topics. Curiously, this topic, about which there is such strong public sentiment in favour of removing burglars so-called ‘rights’, has prompted only ten comments printed online. Even more curiously, the first three of these comments … Continue reading →

at least if you rely on BBC News you will. The biggest British media/entertainment story of the day (and probably of the week, if not the month) was very briefly mentioned on the Six O’Clock News this evening (no footage, just a very, very brief sentence), and not at all on the Ten O’Clock News. Bhopal hoax hits BBC is the front page headline on The Times website – along … Continue reading →

This is classic Paul Reynolds, being all solicitous about the future of Koffi’s family business, the UN. I have read the article reasonably closely. It is dominated by Reynolds’ refrain about a ‘high level panel’ that’s trying to find ways of reforming the UN. Good show, you may think, except that what Reynolds doesn’t say, which you will only know if you have a suspicious mind and follow the link … Continue reading →

Harking back to my post last week about the BBC’s ignorant/biased coverage of the foreign nationals detained at Belmarsh (arguably for their own safety, in preference to forcibly deporting them to their home countries) BBC News 24 were at it again today with an interview with Barry Hugill of Liberty* that was shown several times, complete with a small strap line reading “UN panel criticises UK detention policy” and a … Continue reading →

on a BBC reporter’s Mid-East handiwork: ‘it is so completely wrong that it can only signal an ignorance so profound that its author has no place anywhere near news scripts – or a bias which is equally profound.’ I know from memory that this is not the first time the BBC have misrepresented a certain Mr Barghouti. Looking at the BBC website I can see the BBC’s attitude is to … Continue reading →

(who, let’s not forget, were out to kill them first). What about French ‘peacekeepers’ who shoot and decapitate Ivorian protesters? As John Rosenthal points out, It does not require a very elaborate demonstration to be able to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if it were not the French, but rather the American military that was caught on videotape firing into a crowd of civilians, it would be … Continue reading →

there was breaking news of a new Fathers4Justice protest at Buckingham Palace. Sky News covered the protest and the removal of the protestor with a split screen – the left picture and the sound covered Charles Kennedy in the Commons, whilst the right picture showed events at Buckingham Palace. Meanwhile, BBC News 24 stuck rigidly with Charles Kennedy. Was it beyond the ability of News 24 to cover the end … Continue reading →