April 23rd saw the appearance of a report credited to Tom McArthur and Helen Sullivan on the BBC News website that was presented under the headline “Lebanon accuses Israel of targeting journalist killed in air strike”.
The framing in that headline is continued and expanded in the report itself, with examples including the following: [emphasis added]
“Lebanon’s prime minister has accused Israel of war crimes after Israeli air strikes killed one journalist and wounded another in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. […]
Officials in Lebanon say they were deliberately targeted as they sought shelter in a home after an initial air strike hit the vehicle in front of them, killing two men.
The officials also accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of intentionally targeting a marked ambulance as it tried to reach the journalists in the village of Tayri. […]
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said: “Targeting journalists, obstructing access to them by relief teams, and even targeting their locations again after these teams arrive constitutes described war crimes.”
He accused Israel of repeatedly targeting media workers in southern Lebanon in what he described as “an established approach”. […]
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the killings a “brazen crime” that broke the “most basic rules” of international law by targeting reporters, “who are ultimately civilians performing a professional duty”.”
Notwithstanding the BBC’s long-evident approach to reporting stories concerning the deaths of journalists in war zones, several highly relevant omissions stand out in this report.
The media outlet that employed the deceased journalist is described as follows:
“The strike killed Amal Khalil, who worked for a Lebanese newspaper, and injured freelance photographer Zeinab Faraj. […]
Journalists Khalil, 43, who worked for Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, and Faraj, a freelance photographer, were travelling together.”
At no point are readers informed that Al-Akhbar is a Hizballah-linked newspaper. As noted by the Alma Center:
“Contrary to its portrayal as an independent media outlet, Al-Akhbar serves as a mouthpiece for Hezbollah and functions as part of its media apparatus. Its editor, Ibrahim Al-Amin, is closely associated with and serves as an advisor to senior Hezbollah figures.”
The location of the incident is described in the report’s opening paragraph as “southern Lebanon” and in paragraph four as “the village of Tayri”. BBC audiences are not informed that Tayri is near Bint Jbeil – the scene of heavy fighting in recent weeks – or that it lies within the Israeli-held security zone and thus behind the forward defence line. In other words, the two journalists had crossed the “yellow line” established as a result of the ceasefire into an area which had previously received evacuation warnings, with the village of Tayri specifically mentioned in an announcement put out on the day prior to the incident.
That relevant information is not provided in the BBC’s own words, with the only unexplained reference coming in one of four paragraphs (out of 42 in total) quoting an IDF statement:
“In a statement, the IDF said it “does not target journalists and acts to mitigate harm to them while maintaining the safety and security of its troops”.
The IDF said it identified two vehicles that had “departed from a military structure used by Hezbollah”.
One of the vehicles had approached Israeli troops in a manner that was an “immediate threat” after crossing a “forward defence line”, violating a ceasefire, the statement said.
The IDF said the Israeli Air Force then struck one of the vehicles, and that the “structure from which the individuals had fled was also struck”.
The BBC’s report includes vague mentions of “two men”.
“Officials in Lebanon say they were deliberately targeted as they sought shelter in a home after an initial air strike hit the vehicle in front of them, killing two men. […]
The two men who died have not been named by officials.”
McArthur and Sullivan fail to inform BBC audiences that, as reported on local channels, the “two men” – who were apparently the real targets of the strike – were Hizballah operatives Ali Nabil Bazzi and Mohammad Al-Hourani.
As we see, McArthur and Sullivan display no interest in trying to find out why journalists were sent by a Hizballah-affiliated newspaper to a location for which evacuation warnings had been issued, why they were accompanied by Hizballah operatives, why their vehicle set out from a Hizballah military building or why they crossed the forward defence line.
Instead, the BBC chose to once again amplify the simplistic “Israel targets journalists” narrative so often seen in its coverage of the Gaza Strip and more recently Lebanon, with – as is now standard – quotes from Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) promoted, along with quotes from the Lebanese ministry of health, which McArthur and Sullivan fail to note is headed by a Hizballah minister.
Additionally, McArthur and Sullivan reinforce their framing of the story by referencing previous incidents which the BBC likewise partially covered at the time.
“Earlier this month, two journalists were killed in separate Israeli strikes in Lebanon – Ghada Dayekh, a presenter with privately-owned radio station Sawt al-Farah, and Suzan Khalil, a reporter and presenter on Al-Manar TV, which is affiliated with the armed group Hezbollah.
Last month, three Lebanese journalists were killed in a targeted Israeli strike in the town of Jezzine, their employers said.
Ali Shoeib, a reporter for Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV, and reporter Fatima Ftouni and her brother, cameraman Mohamed Ftouni, both from Al Mayadeen channel, were killed in the strike.
At the time, the IDF confirmed it killed Shoeib and Mohamed Ftouni, describing them as “terrorists” from Hezbollah’s military wing, while saying it was aware of reports a female journalist was also killed.”
Once again the corporation’s funding public can only conclude that the BBC’s chosen editorial policy is to promote the narrative of “Israel targeting journalists” (or, as at least one BBC reporter is calling it, “journacide”), even if that framing has to be advanced by omission.
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