Olympic Protest Imagery Doesn't Last Long on BBC News

Blog: The Editors, 3 July 2012

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Images of protest related to the London Olympics don't seem to remain newsworthy for long on the BBC News website.

On 30 June 2012, a protest against the MoD's plans to site surface-to-air of missiles in East London during the olympics took place. The BBC reported on the event, initially with an image of a protester at the top of the story. The image was soon removed from the report, replaced by a still image from a video of the missiles (captured below).

Today, 3 July, when reporting that the plan to install the missiles has been confirmed by the MoD, similar editing can be seen. Initially, the report contained an image of a protester, but after just over an hour the image was moved further from the headline, with an image of the missiles again placed in the top spot.

Screenshots of 30 June protest report:

BBC News - London 2012: East London residents march over missiles - 30 June 2012
Page at 15:29	Page at 16:49

Now, we see the same thing happening on a related news story.

Screenshots of 3 July story:

BBC News - London 2012: Olympic Missile Sites Confirmed - 3 July 2012
Page at 13:23	Page at 14:31

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