Readers may remember that last November the BBC broadcast what it categorised as a documentary about the Gaza Surf Club on BBC Radio 4.
The BBC webpage promoting the programme includes a very extensive synopsis – or mini article – the second paragraph of which originally read as follows:
“The people of Gaza are hemmed in by checkpoints and walls, fences and watchtowers and few are able to leave the territory or to import and export goods. But one thing Gaza does have in its favour is the sea. Long sandy beaches stretch right down the territory’s west coast and on summer weekends it seems that most of Gaza’s one-and-a half million residents are enjoying themselves on the beach. And that’s where you’ll find members of the Gaza Surf Club, a group of young Palestinians who defy both the Israeli blockade and a sea that’s often polluted with raw sewage to ride the waves off the coast of this troubled territory.” [emphasis added]
The parts of that paragraph appearing above in bold were the subject of a complaint to the BBC made by Mr Stephen Franklin. The BBC eventually accepted the points made by Mr Franklin and conceded that:
“…the statement “few Gazans are able to leave the territory or to import and export goods” doesn’t accurately reflect the current situation”.
That paragraph has since been amended and now reads:
“But one thing Gaza does have in its favour is the sea. Long sandy beaches stretch right down the territory’s west coast and on summer weekends it seems that most of Gaza’s one-and-a half million residents are enjoying themselves on the beach. And that’s where you’ll find members of the Gaza Surf Club, a group of young Palestinians who ride the waves off the coast of this troubled territory.”