Film-maker Ken Loach yesterday tore into the BBC for its biased coverage of Israel’s assault on Gaza as he joined an ongoing occupation outside the broadcaster’s headquarters in Bristol.
Speaking to the Morning Star from the front lawn of the BBC Bristol offices, Mr Loach said: “The protesters are doing a terrific job even as the BBC is threatening to get them evicted from the site.
“We should note that many at the BBC, including senior staff, are embarrassed by the broadcaster’s coverage that has an obvious pro-Israel bias.
“They don’t put the views of Palestinians to the Israelis during interviews, while the use of language about Gazans is pejorative and the war crimes being committed against them ignored.
“They’re not ‘militants’ or ‘terrorists,’ they’re ‘resistance fighters.’ On the one side innocent people are being massacred, while the other are setting off a few fireworks.
“It’s the BBC, we own it, so it should be answerable.”
He believes BBC editors will have no choice but to respond to the pressure but believes any change to their broadcasting habits will be a “tactical” one.
Palestine campaigners have occupied the front lawn of the BBC building in Bristol for the last week.
They are set to join thousands in a march through the city today against the “Israeli genocide” in Gaza. It is set to be the biggest protest in Bristol for a decade, with demonstrators departing Bristol’s Shah Jahal Mosque at noon for a rally on College Green.
And next week they are set to present a “damning dossier” to BBC Bristol TV editor Neil Bennett containing evidence of the broadcaster’s biased reporting and demand time to argue their case.
The activists are also arranging a public burning of TV licences and the occupation’s court summons, as well as making plans to resist the eviction and to shame the BBC.
Along with Mr Loach’s attendance to the picket, other high-profile artists and campaigners offered messages of support.
Among them was comedian Mark Thomas, who said: “The BBC reporting of the Israeli military assault on Gaza has failed time and time again to contextualise the violence, refusing to explain the occupation of Palestine and the siege of Gaza.
“Ironically the occupation of the BBC in Bristol seems likely to be the only time an occupation is commented on.”
