Showing posts with label 'From Our Own Correspondent'. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 'From Our Own Correspondent'. Show all posts

Saturday, July 16, 2016

newspapers and Meanwhile...newspapers


One of the items on today's From Our Own Correspondent began with a telling (though doubtless unconscious) admission from Kate Adie:
In 60 years this programme has broadcast many dispatches from the Middle East, particularly the West Bank
The BBC's obsession has been well-documented in recent years but it's good to see it admitted at last.

The report from Ed Lewis (a piece about a rock-climbing club in Ramallah) began, inevitably, like this: 
Ramallah has a new wall. Not a vertical grey concrete wall but a bright blue, green and white one. It has no look-out posts, razor wire or steel gates...
It was a largely upbeat piece but, just as inevitably, there were passages like this:
The West Bank has not become an adventure playground overnight. Nor will it anytime soon. Israeli restrictions and the designation of many parts of the West Bank as military zones or nature reserves severely restrict the scope for more outdoor activity...
Human interest stories from inside Israel (especially upbeat ones) aren't something you hear very often on From Our Own Correspondent (or at least not in the recent past). Why ever not?

Saturday, July 2, 2016

newspapers and "Looms"newspapers


In one of last night's posts I noted the use of the "looms" by Katie Razzall on Newsnight, suggesting that it revealed her bias on the Brexit issue:


Today's From Our Own Correspondent also featured the word. Here BBC journalist Chris Bowlby linked the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1992 with Brexit today (though oddly, whilst describing all the complications and turmoil of that "divorce", he didn't make the obvious point that the two successor states are doing just fine now):
"As a Brit you won't really understand", [a Czechoslovak] added, "as nothing like this could happen in your country". 
"Ha ha, yes", we laughed, amused by the very thought of Britain being a place where suddenly everything seems unstable and a huge legal process of separation looms.
The theme of Chris's report can be summed up by the following pair of sentences:
I don't want to exaggerate. No one's suggesting Britain's current dramas approach anything like the horrors that swept 20th Century Europe but Brexit is still a huge shock to how the continent views Britain. 

newspapers and The return of the Migrant Crisis?newspapers



Thursday's first post-Brexit vote edition of From Our Own Correspondent gave us another chance to hear from one of the BBC's most opinionated foreign reporters, their Central Europe correspondent Nick Thorpe (a regular here at ITBB during the 'now-forgotten' migrant crisis).

Here he talked about the "fateful" British vote's effect on Eastern Europe. It's provoked "shock". "anger", "fear" and "insecurity" there.

And he had a personal message for us too:
People in Britain often tell me that Europeans don't like us. My own impression is the opposite. 
Wherever I travel in Eastern Europe people tell me how much they love the British for our idiosyncrasies, our awkwardness, our stubborn pints and unconvertible inches. We're respected for keeping our own currency and resisting the faceless euro. Our diplomats are admired for helping other nations end their wars and our soldiers for doing the job they were given and then going home. 
If that positive image of Britain in Europe were more widely known in the United Kingdom perhaps the result would have been different
(Might it? Are you, dear reader, now feeling 'buyer's remorse'? If only you'd known how much they love us!)

And the consequences appear to be wholly negative over there (at least from Nick's account):
The departure of Britain from the UK - if that actually happens - will deprive Eastern Europe of an important ally....For the countries of the Balkans it's a disaster. 
(Now see what you've done!)

At least the following report from India from Sanjoy Majumder gave a less wholly gloomy picture. Though the first half of his report (following an introduction from Kate Adie that began, "No one knows if or when the UK will trigger Article 50...") began negatively too, with "It's a disaster" as the main "refrain" in central Delhi, and lots of talk of "turmoil" and economic concern, it did, however, go on to say that lots of Indians now see opportunities for better business deals, and for much more migration from India  to the UK. Its closing line ran as follows:
"It's not all bad news," says one business leader, with a chuckle. "We may be able to help them out of their crisis".

And then came a story you - like me - won't have heard much of at all during the EU referendum debate. It's the story that many complained at the time was being conveniently 'forgotten about' by the BBC. But now it's back on the BBC, and here's how Kate Adie introduced it:
What with Brexit, political turmoil and terrorist attacks, news of Europe's refugee crisis has dropped off the front pages.
Ah, yes, Kate! "Dropped off the front pages", has it? It's the newspapers' fault, is it? It's not dropped even more markedly off the BBC News website, and the Today headlines, and BBC One's News at Six in recent months too?

She went on to tell us something you might not have known:
On the day of the referendum vote the Italian navy and coastguard said they'd rescued 4,500 migrants during that single Thursday.
It was then back to the kind of report which we haven't heard for many months. 

Freelance reporter Lizzie Porter reported from "a makeshift Afghan village" in Greece, where "increasingly anxious" people claim to have escaped the Taliban and "the so-called" Islamic State. She tells their stories, over sweet dates and tea. She seems to believe them. A little girl inspires her with her energy, but everyone else is depressed. "Don't you people in Europe watch the news?", was a refrain. Her closing words came from 'Habib':
If you saw us now you would not believe we are human beings. Pray for us.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

newspapers and Time for a change of job, Jeremy?newspapers



True story...

I've just been catching up with today's From Our Own Correspondent. I saw the website blurb saying there were stories from the Middle East, Afghanistan, Italy, Malawi and Turkey and wondered if 'from the Middle East' meant 'about Israel' (as if so often does with FOOC). 

Kate Adie's introduction didn't preview the Middle East story, so I ploughed on. It came as the final item and began, innocuously enough, with Kate Adie talking about how anniversaries are increasingly being used as pegs by media outlets. 'Is it going to be a WW1 anniversary?', I wondered. 

Then she announced the name of the reporter doing the 'FOOC' piece: Jeremy Bowen. I groaned. 'Oh God, here we go!', I thought. 'What anniversary is he going to choose? Something I/P-related?'. 

And then he began:

Sixteen years ago this week my friend and colleague Abed Takkoush was killed by the Israeli army...

And, yes, the whole piece went through his trauma and his accusations against Israel yet again. It was unbelievable (only figuratively-speaking). 

Given the widespread impression that the above incident coloured his whole approach to the I/P conflict, was it wise for FOOC to have indulged him once again? 

Pro-Palestinian types on Twitter are full of praise for his 'dispassionate' reporting today.

Isn't it about time someone did something about Jeremy Bowen?