These are indeed very turbulent times we are living in…. And the latest controversy stirred up by the BBC over whether to show the DEC emergency appeal for Gaza is creating a split amongst the viewers never seen before.
Some believe the BBC are right in their standpoint of not allowing the appeal for aid to be viewed. Others disagree and believe the BBC should show the appeal for humanitarian reasons.
Whichever way this standoff goes, it has brought to the fore emotions about this subject and caused many a raised voice including in my own household.
The reasons the BBC are giving for not showing the appeal rests on two points
1) They have concerns about the distribution of the aid to the people in Gaza
2) They don’t want to lose their impartiality in reporting and believe if they show the DEC appeal they will lose the impartial position they hold in their reporting.
Mark Thompson was interviewed about his decision this morning on the Today Programme.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7850000/7850617.stm
If this had happened even but five years ago, the volume of public dissent and disagreement would not have been nearly so loud however with the modern communication (web 2.0 tools) such as blogging and forums, the conversations about this are many and loud.
One of the biggest attributes of blogging is that it allows for comments or chat backs if one wants to use the appropriate language. And following on from the Director General of the BBC’s post on the editorial blog in which he defends his decision, the number of comments has been quite overwhelming.
Most of them are on the side the BBC should show the appeal for the sake of humanity because people are dying through lack of medical care and basic supplies which have been blockaded by Israel and even now are coming through slowly.
And I have to say I take this humanitarian stand point.. My husband takes the position of Mark Thompson and hence our earlier spate.
What saddens me about this whole thing has been the escalating war of words and the growing disagreements between families and brothers whilst people are dying because they are not getting essential medical care.
The attention seems to have been diverted from the people in Gaza into a conversation of whether the BBC is right or wrong…
There is no right or wrong when it comes to people dying – it is wrong and there is nothing right about it. It’s worse when it is children dying… and this war has claimed already too many young lives.
The BBC hold the mantle of the Fourth Estate but one can’t help but wonder now if there are cracks appearing in this role.
At the end of the day is Mark Thompson’s behaviour similar to that of a feudal lord in that he can ‘decide’ what information his subjects are allowed to be told and what they can’t be shown.
The Fourth Estate was the role of the media to watch over the monarchy and now it has the power in its own right to own information and control the masses. Who controls this power I wonder? Who ultimately ensures the Director Generals of the BBC are making the right decisions on behalf of the viewing public? Have they assumed that we are not able to make our own decisions and choices and need to be shielded in case we lose our impartiality to the conflict?
Mark has come across as furiously arrogant in this instance when he has decided to not show the appeal. The ground he particularly lost it with me was when he questioned whether the aid would actually reach the people it needed too or whether Hamas would take control of it.
For a person whose life was spent from an early age with people who worked with the Red Cross, Save the Children, UN and the other charities involved in the appeal, having the privilege to know people who have given of themselves in the name of helping and saving others, it was the biggest slap on the face. These are people who care deeply about the safety and welfare of other human beings. Who work for the good of others.
To question them and their ability to deliver aid to the Palestinians was so low as to be abhorrent. It makes a mockery of the work of the Red Cross over the last 75 years.
It is deeply insulting for this to even have been suggested.
And that is where my principle grudge is with Mark Thompson.
This brings me to the future because I believe the BBC is damaged now. People are feeling disengaged from it, people like me who grew up with the BBC Worldservice as my news source, my eyes and ears to the world and a trusted friend.
After the last few days of controversy I walk away from the BBC because it feels as if my friend has betrayed me and is not a nice person after all. Which sounds ridiculous reading these words but its really how I feel.
My future is with the bloggers and reading blogs and finding information from the web because I feel confident now where and how to access what I feel is relevant and right to me.
Benkler wrote in his book – The Wealth of Networks of how bloggers are creating the Fifth Estate and I truly can see this happening now.
The world is in such turmoil, with our banks collapsing, money running out, industries struggling for survival and in the midst of all this it feels as if everything we felt was real is not. If we stop believing in the media then the only option is to go into the internet and find the information there which we seek to find.
Will it be balanced and fair and impartial? That is hard to say, the blogosphere is still evolving but I feel hope when I read the blogs on the Daily Kos or the Huffington Post… these are not the standard elite who have controlled the media for different interests but are people who are passionate about their world and their society and this gives me hope.
In years to come we will be studying the Israeli control of the media in this conflict – how all the journalists involved in reporting on the war at a distance were texted every morning and given intense news briefings on the Israeli position whilst the rights of the Palestinians were ignored or bombed.
Dr Scilla Elworthy, founder of the Oxford Research Group and founder of the charity Peacedirect makes an interesting point in her broadcast which I will go and dig out for this blog. She says terrorists are not born, they are made and they most often made when they have been humilated and given no hope.
That pretty much sums up to me the ingredients the Israelis have imposed on the Palestinians, they have humiliated them and taken away their hope. In other words Hamas was created by the Israeli’s through their actions of suppressing the Palestinians.
What a bloody awful mess this whole thing is.
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