Throughout the coming week BBC Watch will be on the road in the UK with events in London and Manchester.
“Studies by groups such as the Community Security Trust and the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism following last year’s Gaza conflict highlighted the inescapable connection between media coverage of a war thousands of miles away and antisemitic incidents in Britain.
In July this year, Prime Minister David Cameron made a speech outlining the government’s five-year strategy for dealing with extremism. In it he raised issues including the promotion of conspiracy theories relating to Israel and Jews, and the dissemination of antisemitic tropes.
With its unparalleled outreach and worldwide influence, the BBC has an obvious obligation to exercise responsibility regarding these issues.
The upcoming review of the BBC’s charter presents a once-in-a-decade opportunity to address the question of whether that obligation is being met, and to examine the wider effects of BBC coverage of Israel, Jews and antisemitism on community cohesion in
Britain.”
We would of course be delighted to meet as many of our UK-based readers as possible at those events – registration details are available here.
