BBC Coverage of Israel Versus Other Trouble Spots (UPDATED)

Benjamin Ivry writes about BBC Crimes and Misdemeanors, noting in passing a 2004 report about the BBC's anti-Israel bias posted on BBC Watch. One point made in the report to substantiate a claim of bias is the percentage of stories about Israel as opposed to other trouble-spots in the world:

8.2 Disproportionate Coverage of Israeli/Palestinian Conflict We attach at appendix I a table, which summarises various conflicts which have run mostly concurrently with the Intifada and which we consider merit attention by all those concerned with humanitarian and political issues. [According to a footnote: "In fact many more conflicts could have been taken into consideration. The BBC recently estimated that there are some 70 current conflicts in the world"--the chart only covers 13]

We identified 58 programmes that covered the selected conflicts. Of those, 19 relate to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Israel therefore attracts some 30% of all programmes and more than double any other country or issue.

The BBC’s disproportionate coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict might arguably not be a source of complaint if the overall coverage were balanced as between programmes which give a favourable or a negative image of Israel. Since it is not so balanced, the disproportionate coverage of Israel only further exaggerates that imbalance.

Here is the chart found in the appendix:

APPENDIX I

Country/ Issue	Description	No. of deaths/ displacements/ disappearances.	No of BBC progs
Israel/ Palestine	Since September 2000 and the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada there has been continued conflict in Israel and the Territories.	Israeli: 979 Palestinian: 2,780	19
Algeria	Throughout the 1990s thousands of people ‘disappeared’ after being seized by Algerian security forces during political violence following the 1992 military backed coup. The Islamists who were fighting the government also seized thousands who are considered to have ‘disappeared’.	Present estimate 30 per month since the mid 1990s. Hundreds of thousands have ‘disappeared’ in the last ten years.	0
Balkans	Following the collapse of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991 there has been ethnic Muslim/Christian strife in the Balkan region, which continues to this day.	16,000 people in Bosnia alone are unaccounted for. Between 1991 and December 1994 there were between 200 and 400,000 Bosnians killed and 2.7 million refugees and 20-50,000 Bosnian women had been raped. Milosovic was charged with 10,000 killings and 250,000 deportations between 1991 and 1999. Two days in March 2004 saw 31 killed and 500 injured in Kosovo.	5
Burma	Since 1962, Burma has been dominated by the Burma Socialist Programme Party, a military junta. Murder, torture, rape, detention without trail and forced relocations are all common in Burma.	On 8 August 1988, up to 10,000 people were killed during a single demonstration.	2
Chechnya	Following independence in 1991, Muslim Chechnya rebels have been embroiled in a continual fight with Russia.	10,000s of people have died in the Chechen war.	2
Iran	Iran is ruled by an Islamist government. Executions following unfair trials including stonings to death in public are not uncommon in Iran. Prominent dissidents of the regime including writers and editors are subjected to arbitrary detention. Religious minorities are often subjected to discrimination and persecution and there have been laws passed that discriminate specifically against women.	Not available	5
Kashmir	Both Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India claim Kashmir as rightfully theirs. The region is constantly troubled by violence and terrorism. A long security barrier is being built to separate the warring parties.	Since 1990, 14,696 people have been killed. Between 1 Jan 2000 and 29 Feb 2004, 4,035 people were killed.	1
Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland has recently seen a period of relative calm although throughout the 1970s and 80s violence abounded as the Republicans and the Unionists sought supremacy and their own success in the fight.	3,546 have died since 1969 and 48 since September 2000.	6
Sudan	The Sudanese civil war, north against south, has been raging since independence in 1965 as Northern Muslims battle against the non Islamic South. This has become an acute crisis over recent months.	Since 1982 2 million Southern Sudanese (including many Christians) have died and 4 million have been displaced.	1
Zimbabwe	Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF continues to carry out its land reform policies and it is reported that the country is on the brink of genocide.	Since 1972, 20,000 people have been killed in Zimbabwe. During June-Nov 2000, there were 80 political killings, 800 kidnappings and 90 charges of torture.	7
AIDS in Africa	The continent of Africa contains 70% of all HIV and AIDS cases in the world. The crisis is of the gravest severity and almost 80% of young adult deaths are directly related to AIDS in 16 African countries.	17 million people have died from AIDS in Africa.	7
Slavery in Africa	Slavery is on the increase in Africa. Children are taken as from their homes and sold for as little as $20.	Not available.	2
‘Honour killings’ in Pakistan and in other Muslim communities.	‘Honour killings’ take place regularly in Pakistan and in other Muslim communities. It is impossible to know the number of women who lose their lives to this practice since the government turns a blind eye.	In the first 8 months of 2003, 637 women were killed this way. In 2001 in Sindh and Punjab there were 606 cases of ‘honour killings’ and 722 female murder cases likely to have been ‘honour killings’. Since 1996 an estimated 4,000 women have been set alight in Pakistan. An average of four women per day are estimated to be subjected to ‘honour killings’ in Pakistan.

That was as of 2004--think anything has changed since?

UPDATE: Check out SnoopyTheGoon's post about the frequency of topics discussed on The Guardian.

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