Sunday 16 June 2019

The BBC and the gilet jaunes


Yesterday

Lord Hall cited the "entirely false"claim that the BBC is operating under a D-notice as far as reporting the gilets jaunes protests in France goes as his prime example of "fake news" but, nonetheless, the rumour persists.

So what actually accounts for the relative lack of coverage the French protests have received (especially in recent months when mentions of the 31-week-long protests have virtually disappeared from the BBC), despite the often astonishing levels of police violence being caught on camera there? Is it a deliberate editorial decision by the BBC? Is it evidence of bias?

Here's author of Economics Made Simple Michael Gow Tolson who tweeted this yesterday:
BBC has given more exposure to the Hong Kong demos in one week than they have the French gilet jaunes in the last 32 weeks. Tells you all about their pro EU bias.  
Several replies to him raised the D-notice rumour again, though one person offered another explanation:
As Macron has lost control then the French demos are so frequent they are boring to viewers and reader, whereas the Hong Kong situation is extremely serious for the biggest financial traders in the far east. The potential ramifications are awesome.
That's obviously true about the Hong Kong demos, but are the French demos really "boring", and is that really the reason why the BBC is barely reporting them these days?

Alas, having seen plenty of videos of police violence there, I don't think "boring" is le mot juste, and the BBC never really gave the protests the concentrated prominence given to, say, anti-Trump protests in America. So if that alternative explanation quoted above has some truth to it, it's certainly not the whole truth. 

1 comment:

  1. Perhaps Mr Sir Clementi can explain it to us. Has he disappeared back into his bunker since his brief emergence to defend the BBC's raid on older pensioners?

    Has he responded to the PM yet about politicians being able to go about their business without fear of threats and intimidation? If so, has this been reported? I think we should be told.

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