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Wake Up Auntie !
Reporting the BBC
Bridget Reiss – Film Makers Against The War
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Antony Wright – A Call For Light
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This year’s BBC Annual General Meeting is definitely going to be different. The event, which will be held at 7pm this Tuesday (19th July) at BBC Television Centre, will be open to the public for the first time. But the meeting may be even more different than the BBC Governors are expecting – at least if one group of activists have their say.
Following on from the successful ‘A Call For Light’ vigil last December, a variety of media activists and film-makers will be holding the first ever ‘report-in’ during the meeting. Their aim is to highlight what they regard as the BBC’s continuing failure to report on the events that matter; especially the ongoing occupation of Iraq.
‘A Call For Light’ has only been around since late 2004 but the group attracted high profile support almost immediately. The film director, Ken Loach, the playwright Harold Pinter, journalists John Pilger and Naomi Klein, and Iraqi Democrats Against the Occupation all threw their weight behind last year’s event. According to one of the organisers, Antony Wright, “Objective reporting requires balance; not only between warring factions, but also between the powerful and the powerless. Our media must be held to this standard, so that no body is hidden and no voice unheard.”
This week’s ‘report-in’ will be a unique media event. Mock TV news reports will show the BBC how they should be doing it: by exploring topics activists claim the BBC ignores. These include the true cost of the sanctions regime, the desperate state of Iraq’s infrastructure, the covert reshaping of Iraq’s legal system, the siege of Falluja, the alleged use of illegal weapons by the occupying forces and, crucially, the censorship of the Iraqi media and dissident journalists like Dahr Jamail.
As one BBC spokesperson said, "We are expecting people to come along and give the BBC a rigorous question time." They might not know just how rigorous it’s going to be. From those who’ll gather outside TV Centre – and perhaps some who assemble within – the message will be clear: It’s time to wake up Auntie.