A guest post by AKUS
Although the BBC has since updated its site with additional news from Israel and Syria, this morning I was struck by the way it reported on events in two Middle Eastern cities.
The BBC noted that that Israeli President Shimon Peres is supporting a rally to condemn violence by a small group of extremist ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Israeli town of Bet Shemesh. Simultaneously, it carried a report on the visit by Arab League observers to the battle-scarred town of Homs.
But look at how two events are headlined by the BBC:
On the one hand, Bet Shemesh, where indeed some unpleasant but hardly deadly events have recently occurred, is a hotbed of “extremism”:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16338376
Shimon Peres urges Israelis to rally against extremism
On the other hand, Homs, where dozens of Syrian citizens are being murdered by government forces, is merely “restive”:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16340299
Syria unrest: Arab League monitors visit restive Homs
Another example of fair and balanced reporting by the BBC, and the way language is used to keep a firm finger on the scales when dealing with anything in the Middle East.
