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| Nigel juxtaposed on an image of Broadcasting House |
The British media's irresponsible reporting of the manslaughter of Arkadiusz Jozwik by a youth in Harlow was a breathtaking thing.
News-watch have pursued the matter with great diligence (with us tracking their pursuit closely), helping prompt Nigel Farage to hand-deliver a complaint to the BBC about the coverage - especially about Newsnight's promotion of an unfounded and shocking smear at his expense.
Thankfully, some parts of the British media have given space to people critical of their reporting of this story but it appears that the BBC is, characteristically, digging its licence-fee-funded heels in and refusing to acknowledge any errors on its part.
The BBC have apparently "vehemently defended" their reporting, describing their coverage of the Harlow killing as "fair" and in line with what other media organisations were reporting (as if that's a proper defence from the BBC! 'Most trusted media organisation in the world', eh?)
The false assertions and smears in the BBC's reporting have been listed several times. (They are summarised here). They are not in doubt.
And the BBC have failed to respond to the charge/fact that the true facts of the killing were, as David at News-watch notes, "reported at a much lesser level (primarily on the Essex pages of the BBC’s regional website) and without sufficient acknowledgement that the race-hate angle (imposed sensationally on the story by them) had been discounted" - in marked contrast to the original reports which "had been blasted at headline level on their most-watched BBC1 bulletins and BBC2 Newsnight".
A prominent correction, an apology from Newsnight (and John Sweeney in particular), maybe even a Panorama special hosted by an open and fully contrite John Sweeney admitting to all the BBC's errors over the reporting of this story, are what is needed.
The BBC should take a good hard look at itself over this.
