Monday 5 January 2009

Protest for Palestine

I attended the demonstration in London on Saturday, marching from Embankment to Trafalgar Square. If I wasn't angered by the lies and biased reporting beforehand, coming home to see the number of protestors reported as 10000 on BBC (and a vague "thousands" on the few other media outlets that bothered mention it) really did it. Any effect the march could potentially have had is nullified with a single lie, as simple as that. I would put the number at 50000 easy, if not more. Shame only those present will know. There were some helicopters in the sky, obviously taking pictures. Why not show some aerial shots? Funny that press coverage in the UK was restricted to close-ups.

I have complained to the BBC. In the meanwhile, the little I do watch, I am now watching on al-Jazeera and Press TV (the latter an Iranian channel). Forget the words; ugly heart rendering footage there you will not see on BBC or Sky News.

As for the protest and protestors, the (multitudes of) young men and women coming out in militant attire shouting aggressive "Takbeer"s (and "Ya Ali"s in the case of the large Hizbullah contingent), that really (always) baffles and saddens me. Some people just miss the point.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The contrast between reporting on both sides is so huge. When I compare how long BBC 24 went on and on and on about the mumbai shootings and yte barely cover the truth on the ground in gaza it saddens me. But alhamdullillah, at least it teaches us not to trust what we see, hear and read. At the very least we learn that behind every newspaper/TV show is a group of people making decisions about what they want us to think.

adil said...

Thought I would quote this article for the record:

"... For five months the teeming Palestinian enclave has been quiet, thanks to a ceasefire agreed in June by Israel and Hamas. But that may all be coming to an end.

The new cycle of violence, rocket-firing, skirmishes and economic blockade started on November 4th, when Israeli forces made an incursion to destroy a tunnel which, they say, was to be used to abduct a soldier..."
(Source: The Economist, November 15th 2008)

adil said...

The link in the previous comment doesn't seem to work for some reason. Here's the URL:

http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12609936