DAMARIS : Damaris Goddrie by Max von Gumppenberg & Patrick Bienert for Dazed & Confused Fall 2015
Before (left) and after: a BBC headline was changed to obscure the fact Israeli killed a Palestinian in cold blood. (Screenshots by Media Lens)
How Israel pressures BBC into changing headlines (nothing new)
- In the early hours of 12 November, approximately two dozen Israeli gunmen, one disguised as a pregnant Palestinian woman, others wearing fake beards, invaded a hospital in Hebron and gunned down a 28-year-old Azzam al-Shalalda.
- Israel claimed that Azzam al-Shalalda was in the hospital to be treated for gunshot wounds he sustained when he allegedly tried to stab an Israeli settler two weeks ago.
- But the medical charity Doctors Without Borders told Ma’an News Agency that Azzam al-Shalalda was being treated in its Mental Health Support Program for victims of political violence.
- The United Nations and other international bodies have condemned the Israeli attacks on medical facilities as violations of international law and fundamental rights. But governments have taken no action to hold Israel accountable and puncture the impunity it continues to enjoy.
- In a rare burst of reporting on an Israeli atrocity, the BBC ran an article on its website headlined: “Israelis shoot dead Palestinian in Hebron hospital raid.”
- It was a straightforward headline which summed up the story. But later in the day, a different headline appeared above the report, reading: “Israelis in disguise raid Hebron hospital, seizing suspect.”
- As is standard practice for the BBC, the amendment was not noted at the bottom of the page, so newcomers to the story would not have known the headline had been altered.
- It was spotted, however, by the watchdog Media Lens, which posted a screengrab of the two headlines on its Facebook page, asking: “What happened? Pro-Israeli flak? Bending to pro-Israeli pressure?”
- These questions are even more pertinent in the light of a documented exchange which took place between the BBC, the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) and the Israeli embassy in London at the beginning of October about another of the broadcaster’s headlines.
Shoutout to every Muslim girl that wears her hijab with pride right now.
I don’t know the amount of courage that takes, but I’m glad you have it. #IStandWithYou
Viola Davis has never shied away from harsh truths. On Tuesday, Davis spoke to the Stuart House (a nonprofit for sexually abused children) about trauma in her own family. Through her speech, she explained how abuse changes survivors’ lives and what she wishes she could say to her sister now: “I wish I could tell my sister …”
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