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From: Ricky Leong <ricky.leong@...>
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 17:16:53 -0500
Subject: Attacks on U.S. not "terrorism": BBC policy

from
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,593696,00.html

Matt Wells
Thursday November 15, 2001
The Guardian

The BBC World Service has taken a policy decision not to describe the
attacks on the US as "terrorism". Mark Damazer, the BBC's deputy director
of news, said the service would lose its reputation for impartiality
around the world if it were seen to use such a subjective term. While
guests and contributors to World Service programmes may describe the
deliberate flying of jet planes into the World Trade Centre as acts of
terror, news correspondents use more neutral terms such as "attack". Mr
Damazer, speaking in a debate about television coverage of September 11 at
the Newsworld conference in Barcelona, insisted the decision was not
intended to downgrade the horror of the event. But if the word terrorism
was used there would be implications for the description of more
subjective acts of terror such as those carried out by Hamas in the Middle
East or ETA in Spain. He said of the attack on the US: "However appalling
and disgusting it was, there will nevertheless be a constituency of your
listeners who don't regard it as terrorism. Describing it as such could
downgrade your status as an impartial and independent broadcaster."
Because of its reputation for impartiality, the World Service has to be
careful about its use of language. It does not usually describe IRA
attacks as terrorism, because they may not be seen as such in a world
context. John Renner, commissioning editor for news programmes at the
World Service, said after the debate yesterday that while the attacks on
New York and Washington had put a strain on the policy, it had to be
maintained. US networks came in for particular criticism. Tony Burman,
executive director at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, said the US
coverage of the crisis had failed to take account of the international
perspective: "It's depressing to see the jingoism which is lamentably part
of the culture and spirit of the coverage." He said US networks regarded
the attacks on Afghanistan as a football match with Washington as the home
team. Comparing BBC World coverage of the war with that of the US
networks, he said they appeared to describe "two different wars". Bill
Wheatley, the vice-president of NBC, in a satellite link from New York,
rejected the charge of jingoism, but said: "It's true that US networks are
focusing on the attempt to defeat the Taliban and apprehend Osama Bin
Laden, but I don't think we've been pulling punches in terms of the
difficulties of the war effort and the problems of US foreign policy." He
acknowledged that the Qatar-based news channel al-Jazeera was not always
regarded as a trusted source, despite its insistence of impartiality.
"Because they have been given special status in Kabul we feel it's correct
that our viewers know that they have that special access."

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