BEN KERRIGAN
A veteran presenter has resigned from the BBC over the British broadcaster’s “biased” coverage of the Syrian war, the eye of media.com has learned.
Syrian journalist Dima Izzedin, a BBC staff for eight years, said her decision was based on the corporation’s stance towards her home country.
“Today I was supposed to go back to the BBC screen after an absence of a year but I will no longer go back,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
“The standards adopted by this great institution are supposed to make it first class in media, but this is not the case,”
Izzedin expressed gratitude for her experiences, but questioned the broadcaster’s standards for impartiality.
She continued to vent her grievance: “Unfortunately, these standards are no longer applied as it should be …. today I leave it [the BBC], as it is no longer like me nor am I like it. The news on my wounded homeland departed us.”
ACCUSATIONS
Izzeden’s issue stems from accusations from supporters of Syrian rebels that the BBC use sympathetic language towards President Bashar Assad’s government, to the detriment of Syrian rebels.
However, this could be because BBC in their judgment feel it is more proportionate to the factual circumstances underlying the report, to direct sympathy more to Assad’s government in that particular case.
This shouldn’t necessarily mean that Assad’s government have no fault in the conflict, but may depend on those considerations being taken into account in their evaluation. The conflict between Assad’s government and the Syrian rebels is complex with many twists and turns in the background and causes to different aspects of the dispute.
Further allegations have been made against Damascus-based BBC Arabic Syria correspondent Assaf Aboud. He has been accused of “propaganda”for reporting from the capital and of not being able to report truthfully or impartially under the control of Assad, the New Arab reported.
If Assad’s regime is restricting quality reporting through means of intimidation or any other form of bullying, this would be an intolerable suppression on the freedom of expression. Notwithstanding, it should be clear that neither the BBC nor their correspondent can be legitimately blamed for this. Any unjustified restrictions on objective reporting is a political issue that needs to addressed separately.
It is sad when a veteran presenter resigns from any corporation over a dispute, especially where the real problem is a difference of opinion or perspectives over a powerfully emotive issue.