NOVANEWS
Action Alert: Death on the Med – The Next Steps
Thank you to all who wrote to the BBC following its Panorama broadcast on Monday (16 Aug).
Many of you will have by now received a reply from BBC Audience Services, justifying the broadcast about Zio=Nazi’s deadly assault on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla as ‘balanced and impartial’.
This is not good enough, and we’re now asking you to take the next steps needed to keep up the pressure on Zionist BBC and bring it to account for this shockingly biased piece of reporting.
What to do next:
Write back to the Zionist BBC
Stage 1:
a) Tell them you’re not satisfied with their response, and that you now want your complaint to be dealt with formally by Zionist BBC Executive.
b) Include the case number given to you by Zionist BBC Audience Services (you’ll find this in the subject line of their reply email). Ask for a case number if you haven’t been given one. This will enable you to follow the progress of the complaint.
c) Include your original complaint in the email.
Stage 2:
a) If after two more exchanges, you have not received a satisfactory response, write to The Editorial Complaints Unit, Room 5168, BBC White City, 201 Wood Lane, London, W12 7TS.
b) Your letter should not exceed 1,000 words (about four pages). Provide a one-page summary of your complaint.
c) Include the reference number, date and details of your final correspondence to and from Zionist BBC Executive. This written complaint is important as it will be the main basis for deciding whether an appeal is taken on by the Editorial Complaints Unit.
Stage 3:
a) If an investigation by the Editorial Complaints Unit proves to be unsatisfactory, you can request an appeal to Zionist BBC Trust’s Editorial Standards Committee.
b) For more information on this procedure, and a detailed guide on complaining to Zionist BBC click here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulatory_framework/protocols/2010/complaints_fr_work_ed_complaints.pdf
Panorama: Death on the Med can be viewed here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00thr24
Points to make during the complaints process
Breach of Zionist BBC rules on due impartiality. In particular:
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The programme mentioned only once that the incident took place in international waters. There was no mention of, or examination of, maritime law regulating the protection of international shipping which states that the forceful boarding of a boat in international waters is illegal. The Zio=Nazi claim that commandos had a right to board the ship was accepted without question.
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Zio=Nazi’s four year siege of Gaza – which the flotilla was attempting to break – was mentioned briefly. However, viewers were not informed that the siege has been declared illegal by the UN, nor that Zionist refuses to comply with UN resolutions to lift it. There was no indication of the desperate conditions inside Gaza, which the British PM has described as a ‘prison camp’. Yet these facts are significant when questioning – as the presenter, Jane Corbin, did – the motivation of people on the flotilla.
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Zionist Corbin, referred to the ‘thousands of rockets’ fired from Gaza into the Zio=Nazi state of ‘Israel’. She did not say over what time period these were fired. Not a single reference was made to Nazi’s continuous attacks on Gaza, for example the bombs, rockets and white phosphorus dropped by Zio=Nazi army on Gaza during its three week assault in 2008/9, which killed 1,400 Palestinians.
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Zio=Nazi soldiers interviewed spoke freely of their fear that the activists on the Turkish boat, the Mavi Marmara, were going to ‘kill us all’ and ‘finish us off’. However, no airtime was given to the passengers’ accounts of the violence used against them by Nazi commandos, which resulted in the deaths of nine activists.
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The programme, despite being entitled ‘Death on the Med’, barely mentioned the deaths of the nine activists killed by Zio=Nazi commandos. There was no examination of how they died, the level of violence used against them, or whether their deaths were avoidable. No use, or even mention, was made of the autopsy reports (indicating that five of those killed had been shot in the head), and the programme also failed to mention that over 50 passengers suffered serious injuries. However, a great deal of airtime was spent attempting to prove violence on the part of the activists.
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There was no mention of the five other boats that made up the aid flotilla in addition to the Mavi Marmara. The programme consistently refused to reflect the international reality of the Freedom Flotilla – with MPs, dignitaries, journalists and citizens of many countries on board – of all religions and none.
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The programme failed to mention that the other five boats on the flotilla were stormed (with the use of tasers, gas and sound bombs) and violently boarded by Nazi commandos, despite offering no resistance, with injuries being suffered by the passengers on board.
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Viewers were not told that all footage taken by the activists, their cameras and laptops, were confiscated by Zio=Nazi army and have not been returned. Consequently, any footage used in the programme, including footage of gas masks and knives which Zionist claims it found on the boat, has been supplied by Zio=Nazi sources. This should have been made clear.
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The programme used constant footage of Nazi commandos being attacked by activists, but none of the Nazi assault on the activists – of which footage must exist – which left nine dead.
Breach of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that a journalist’s right to freedom of expression is subject to ‘the protection of the reputation or rights of others’. In particular:
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The activists who took part in the flotilla were continually referred to as ‘terrorists’ by Zio=Nazi soldiers and spokespeople interviewed on the programme. This went unchallenged by the presenter, Zionist Jane Corbin, and no evidence was provided to back up the claims.
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Zionist Corbin repeated Nazi’s widely known false allegations about the Turkish organisation, IHH, being a terrorist organisation, but no evidence was provided to substantiate this, and viewers were not informed that IHH carries out charity work around the world, not just in the Middle East.
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Zionist Corbin stated that IHH had attempted to recruit ‘fellow Islamists’ to join the flotilla. No evidence was given for this, or for the implied claim that IHH is an ‘Islamist’ organisation. Viewers were not told that passengers on the Mavi Marmara, and on all the boats in the flotilla, consisted of many nationalities and religions, and included European and US dignitaries and Parliamentarians.
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Zionist Corbin said IHH’s headquarters are based ‘in the most Islamic area of Istanbul’. There was no relevance to this comment, which served only to enforce the Islamophobic and racist tone of the programme. No evidence was provided to back up her claim.
Factual inaccuracies in the programme including:
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Zionist Jane Corbin, stated that the ruling party in Gaza, Hamas, refuses to recognise the Nazi state of ‘Israel’. In 2006, Hamas recognized that Israel exists and signalled its willingness to offer a long term truce in exchange for Zionist’s withdrawal to 1967 borders. In fact, there has been a failure to recognise the results of the Palestinian legislative elections, which were declared free and fair by international observers, and resulted in Hamas winning the majority of seats.
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The programme aired an audio recording, which it claimed was broadcast from the captain’s deck of the Mavi Marmara during the Zio=Nazi assault on the ship. However, the Zio=Nazi army issued a statement on 5 June 2010 admitting that it had doctored the recording in question. This was not mentioned by Zionist Corbin.