Syrian Conflict: Biases on International Involvement in the UK Media
The Editors, 17 June 2013

Barack Obama's decision to further arm the Syrian rebels, which has prompted Iran to respond by sending 4,000 troops to support Bashar Al-Assad, has been met by the BBC's Mark Mardell, currently travelling with Obama, not by high-level alarm at the potential repercussions of the internationalisation of the Syrian conflict, but...

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UK Media Helps Pave Road to War on Syria
The Editors, 8 May 2013

The Syrian conflict has been accompanied by a distinct media narrative. Within this narrative - which poses a binary division between the forces engaged in the conflict, identifying the players as good (the rebels, who must receive 'our' support) and bad (the government) - the role the West must play is...

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'Could Prove Useful to Israel': Media Support for Western Arms Deals
The Editors, 23 April 2013

An important job for the representatives of any world power is to fly around the world selling arms to client states. Despite David Cameron's constant rhetoric that countries to have a right to defend themselves (preferably using British-made hardware), it is certainly undeniable that continuous arms sales in no way make...

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Don't mention the occupation: BBC Newsnight on Palestinian Application for Non-state Observer Status
Peter Allen, 3 April 2013

In my previous article on Newsnight's coverage of Israel/Palestine I looked at the discussion of a possible Israeli invasion of Gaza - in a report responding to fast moving events - and how an Israeli perspective was used to structure it. This time, I am going to analyse a different kind...

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A Case Study of BBC Newsnight Reporting of Israel/Palestine
Peter Allen, 25 March 2013

'Why is this lying bastard lying to me?' is a remark about interviewing politicians commonly attributed to Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman (actually originally made by Louis Heren of The Times). For those of us who watch Newsnight and its like the question we need to ask is not only 'why', but also...

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Reporting on Syria: How the Media Designates a Role for the UK
The Editors, 20 March 2013

'We believe that a people is in danger today [...] we have to give the Syrian opposition the means finally to gain the upper hand, that is the departure of Bashar al-Assad', announced French president Francois Hollande recently, while David Cameron explained that 'what we want to do is work with...

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The BBC's 'Bogeyman' Narrative on Hugo Chavez
The Editors, 7 March 2013

The BBC maintained a strong a record of misleading reporting throughout the presidency of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who died on Tuesday, following a two year battle with cancer. Yet today's article by Jon Kelly, 'Hugo Chavez and the era of anti-American bogeymen', takes a particularly spiteful slant on the issue...

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The Representation of Torture in the 'War on Terror'
Josh Watts, 11 February 2013

In the mainstream media, we are presented with 'a "war on terror" conducted by a "civilized" West against a less civilized "other"'1. There are obvious flaws with this narrative. For example, even the barest of bones of the 'civilized' West's historical record demolishes its proclaimed values and objectives. Thus, a nation...

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Acquiescence and Sycophancy as David Cameron Tours North Africa
The Editors, 4 February 2013

Many of the major UK news reports are routinely shaped by Prime Ministerial speeches and press releases, often including a sense of balance in presenting oppositional views emerging from parliamentary debate and opposition. However on issues such as foreign policy, upon which the main political parties are more or less in...

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Legitimising Violence in Reporting on International Conflict
The Editors, 4 February 2013

The media's portrayal of international conflict often implicitly expresses judgement on the justness or otherwise of the use of force. This is evident in the differing approaches taken towards the reporting of acts of war, in which the issue of violence is portrayed by turn as legitimate or criminal, depending on...

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Fact-checking Rory Carroll on Venezuela
The Editors, 28 January 2013

In the New Statesman on 25 January 2013, a special feature entitled 'After Chavez' included contributions from two of The Guardian's former Latin America correspondents, Richard Gott and Rory Carroll, presenting opposing viewpoints on the current situation in Venezuela, and the political legacy of the Chavez government. The New Statesman leader comments...

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Logical Fallacies: The Financial Times on Syria and Uranium Stockpiles
The Editors, 10 January 2013

On 8 January the Financial Times published an article by James Blitz, entitled 'Fears raised over Syria uranium stockpile', premised primarily on the 'fears' and otherwise subjective ruminations of unnamed 'official' and 'expert' sources, one the two named sources being former weapons inspector David Albright (discussed further below). The claims of Blitz's...

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UK Reporting on Venezuela Continues to be Clouded by Partiality
The Editors, 17 December 2012

As Hugo Chavez receives further cancer treatment in Cuba, this time seemingly with much higher stakes than before, the UK media has again shown where its interests lie when it comes to reporting on left-wing Latin American governments. The attack has come in many forms, from portraying once again the country...

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Whitewashing an Assault: BBC Coverage of the Israel-Gaza Ceasefire
The Editors, 22 November 2012

Last night a ceasefire came into effect after a week of attacks on Gaza which left over 150 Palestinians dead (at least 40 of them children) and rocket fire into Israel which left 5 Israelis dead. Before the news of the ceasefire became the front-page headline on the BBC News website,...

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Siding with the Powerful: UK Media Coverage of the Assault on Gaza
The Editors, 16 November 2012

The BBC News, and particularly the reports from Diplomatic Correspondent Jonathan Marcus, on the ongoing Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip has presented the violence as little more than a defensive policy manoeuvre by Israel, whose government, in Marcus's view, 'clearly wants' another ceasefire. On Wednesday Marcus wrote that the Israeli...

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Luring an Attack: Julian Borger Claims Insight Into Iran's Motives
The Editors, 16 November 2012

Last week news reports emerged that Iranian warplanes had fired on a US Predator surveillance drone over the Gulf waters on the 1st November, 5 days before the US presidential elections. News of the incident was suppressed by the US until after the elections, we were told. As is standard practice in...

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US Election Foreign Policy Debate: UK Editorials on the Role of the US
Josh Watts, 6 November 2012

In a strongly-worded endorsement for Barack Obama in its pre-election issue, the editors of The New Yorker1 write that the 'flawed and complicated' 'human being', Obama, 'has sometimes struggled to convey the human stakes of the policies he has initiated'. This is undoubtedly relevant in regards to foreign policy. Having come...

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The Treasures of War: The Today Programme on 'Britain's Great Adventure in Basra'
The Editors, 26 October 2012

Radio 4's Today programme of 16 October provided rare, frank insight into the priorities behind the British occupation of Iraq, and the inherent entanglement between the military effort and 'British business'. Presenter John Humphrys discussed the closure of the British consulate in Basra with financier Andrew Alderson and executive chairman of...

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A Roundup of Media Coverage Surrounding the Venezuelan Election
Josh Watts, 24 October 2012

In the run up to the 7 October Venezuelan election, it was reported that President Hugo Chávez would face 'the toughest electoral challenge of his reign' (The Times)1, 'that [would] decide the fate of his socialist revolution and could rearrange the region's balance of power' (Financial Times).2 The election, then,...

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Venezuelan Election Day: Channel 4 Selects Pro-Opposition Viewpoints
The Editors, 7 October 2012

British news is today (07/10/2012) much concerned with the elections underway in Venezuela. The election will be the 'closest since Hugo Chavez took power' (The Guardian), or the 'the country's most tightly contested presidential election in a decade' (BBC). To begin with, it should be noted that the above assertions are themselves...

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Alarm and Hypocrisy: When Retaliation is Unacceptable to the Media
The Editors, 3 October 2012

The Independent's 'legendary pedant', Guy Keleny, recently highlighted the hypocrisy of press reporting on nuclear weapons: 'It is an iron law of journalese usage that every nuclear power in the world has a nuclear weapon - except one. Britain alone occupies a higher moral plane, and deploys not a weapon but...

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Promises and Failures: The Economist and the Venezuelan Election
Josh Watts, 3 October 2012

In an interview with the New Left Project, Dr. Lee Salter, following research into BBC reporting on Venezuela stated that 'the coverage of Venezuela has particular importance mainly because it is a case in which a democratically mandated government faces a plethora of reactionary forces seeking to destabilise and overthrow it'.1...

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Jim Armitage and the Skewed Reporting on the Venezuelan Elections
Josh Watts, 26 September 2012

On Saturday 22 September, a little over two weeks before the upcoming Venezuelan presidential election of 7 October, Jim Armitage asked in The Independent: 'A devil to the US, a folk hero in much of Venezuela, could Ken Livingstone's old chum Hugo Chavez finally be on his way out?' Apart from...

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The BBC, East Timor and the Revision of History
Josh Watts, 13 September 2012

On Thursday, 6 September 2012, the BBC reported US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's 'landmark trip to East Timor', making her 'the first US secretary of state to do so since the country's independence in 2002'. 'Mrs Clinton', explained the BBC, 'said her visit was a sign of America's support for...

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All the Facts on Agent Orange?
Josh Watts, 24 August 2012

On the back page of its World news section, The Independent relayed a tiny 106 word Associated Press report, that the United States is 'beg[inning] a landmark project to clean up a dangerous chemical [dioxin] left from the defoliant Agent Orange, 50 years after American planes first sprayed it on Vietnam's...

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Simplifying History: the BBC's Coverage of US and Cuba Relations
Josh Watts, 3 August 2012

Cuban President Raul Castro 'grabbed the microphone' at a Revolution Day ceremony in eastern Guantánamo, reported the BBC, and 'made a seemingly impromptu address' in which he 'said he is willing to hold talks with the US'. So explained an article which left much unsaid with regards to US-Cuba relations. In his...

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Olympic Security and the Limits of Debate
The Editors, 27 July 2012

'Our instructions from government are absolutely clear', explained Home Office security and counter-terrorism head Charles Farr to the BBC's Gordon Corera. '[O]f course the priority must be to save and protect life, but our priority should also be to keep the Games running. The Games go on'. The need to secure the...

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America's Secret War: Much Omitted During Clinton's Diplomacy Tour
Josh Watts, 20 July 2012

On 11 July 2012, The Independent's Andrew Buncombe reported on US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's visit 'to the scene of one of the darkest episodes of US foreign policy' - Laos, where she 'saw first-hand the aftermath of America's "secret war" in which about two million tons of bombs were...

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Choosing Sides: The BBC's Coverage of the Venezuelan Election Race
The Editors, 19 July 2012

In the upcoming Venezuelan presidential elections, to be held in October of this year, the electorate will choose between current President Hugo Chavez and opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, former governor of Miranda state. BBC coverage of the run-up to the presidential elections to date has depicted a situation in which one...

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Nuclear State: Media not Concerned about UK Weapons Development
The Editors, 18 June 2012

Over the last 7 months, UK journalists have consistently voiced their objection to nuclear weapons proliferation. This opposition appears as the western media holds a magnifying glass to Iran and speculation abounds over Iran's nuclear capabilities; speculation that appears to be more in line with western governments' policy rather than with...

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