Around 5,000 protestors blocked the road outside the BBC’s London studios yesterday for two hours, shouting ‘BBC, shame on you’. (15th July)
The protestors were demanding that the broadcaster start reflecting the reality of Gaza’s occupation and siege in its coverage of the current assaults.
Hugh Lanning, Chair of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, handed a letter into the BBC, addressed to its Director General, Lord Hall, criticising the organisation’s lack of context in its reporting of the situation.
The open letter had been signed by 45,000 people including Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Ken Loach, Andy Slaughter MP, Katy Clark MP, Brian Eno, Owen Jones and Jeremy Hardy.
Mr Lanning said: ‘In its day to day reporting of what it terms the conflict, the BBC fails to report that Israel holds the civilian population of Gaza under occupation and siege, and it fails to report on the daily violence and oppression visited on the Palestinians of Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem by the occupier, Israel. This allows the BBC to present Israel as being under threat from the Palestinians, while completely omitting the Palestinian perspective.’
On Monday (14th July), the hashtag #BBCTruth4Gaza trended on Twitter at number 1 in the UK for three hours from 7.30pm (GMT) and at number 4 worldwide.