Saturday 29 June 2019

Not quite the whole story



I saw a tweet somewhere earlier today complaining about a BBC online news report headlined Italy migrants: Rescue ship captain arrested at Lampedusa port. It began:
The captain of a migrant rescue ship has been arrested at the Italian port of Lampedusa after a two-week stand-off with police at sea.
Carola Rackete's vessel, Sea-Watch 3, was carrying dozens of African migrants rescued off the coast of Libya.
The Italian authorities had banned it from docking, but the vessel entered the port late on Friday night.
Italy's far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini is taking a tough line against migrant rescue ships.
Ms Rackete's decision to enter the port without permission brought an end to a prolonged stalemate with Italy's coastguard. 
I didn't see much to object to myself, but I thought I'd better compare it to Sky's report Migrant rescue ship captain arrested after stand-off with Italy ends nevertheless. That began:
The captain of a German aid ship has been arrested after the vessel docked without permission on a tiny Italian island - and rammed a police motorboat blocking its way.
Forty migrants stepped on to Italian soil after Sea-Watch 3 arrived in Lampedusa early on Saturday morning. Some of them hugged the crew and kissed the dock after their 17 days at sea came to an end.
Captain Carola Rackete was detained after defying Italian authorities by allowing those on board to disembark.
Matteo Salvini, Italy's anti-migration interior minister, has accused Rackete of putting lives at risk. He wrote on Twitter: "Outlaw arrested. Pirate ship seized. Big fine on foreign NGO. Migrants all redistributed in other European countries. Mission completed."
The BBC report neglects to report the fact that Ms Rackete's ship rammed a police motorboat or that Mr Salvini accused her of putting lives at risk.  

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