Tuesday, 12 March 2019

Forgetting the victims



Under the headline Ex-jihadist jailed for murders in Jewish museum in Brussels Sky News reports:
A French citizen told a jury "life goes on" as he was jailed for killing four people in a Jewish museum in Brussels. 
Mehdi Nemmouche was sentenced to life over the murders of tourist couple Myriam and Emmanuel Riva, and two museum employees, Dominique Sabrier and Alexandre Strens in May 2014. 
Nemmouche staged the attack shortly after coming back from Syria, where he had been fighting with Islamist factions in the civil war. 
It was the first attack by a Western European who had fought with the factions, and raised concerns about jihadists returning to their home countries.
Under the headline Brussels Jewish Museum murders: Mehdi Nemmouche jailed for life BBC News reports:
A Frenchman who murdered four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May 2014 has been jailed for life. 
Mehdi Nemmouche, 33, opened fire with an assault rifle and a handgun, killing three people at the scene. A fourth person died later in hospital. 
He had previously spent a year fighting for the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria. 
A man who helped plan the attack and supply weapons, Nacer Bendrer, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
One thing that immediately struck me here was that Sky News listed the terrorist's victims in its second paragraph, while BBC News - in a long report - only mentions Mr and Mrs Riva in connection to their children's testimony in court and completely omits the names of the other two victims, Dominique Sabrier and Alexandre Strens.

A second thing is that where Sky notes that his attack "raised concerns about jihadists returning to their home countries", you won't find any such mention in the BBC's article. 

As for the obvious antisemitic aspect, Sky reports that "Two French journalists told a court they remembered Nemmouche as deeply antisemitic, sadistic and full of hatred", whereas the BBC only reports his disgraceful defence team's argument that he "could not be considered anti-Semitic because he wore Calvin Klein shoes - an apparent reference to Mr Klein's Jewish heritage".