Protesters have called for more Palestinian voices in BBC reporting during a demonstration at Media City.
The protest, organised by the Manchester Palestine Movement along with Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine, aimed to address ‘unequal’ reporting from the BBC.
Earlier this year, the Centre for Media Monitoring reported that in the 12 months following October 7 2023, the BBC had given Israeli casualties 33 times more coverage than Palestinians and shut down allegations of genocide more than 100 times across its articles and broadcasts.
The Manchester Palestine Movement described the reported inequality as “shameful,” and various speakers said their main goal was to amplify the voices of the Palestinian people.
One of the speakers who says they worked as a teacher in Palestine described his experiences on the ground, saying: “I taught them and they were just in the rubble.”
Another speaker reflected on the criticism directed towards the BBC, and why it was so important to call out media bias.
“Lots of us here would support the idea of a publicly-funded service which was providing the public information truthfully and honestly, but the trouble is, it’s not the one we have got,” they said.
“Our country, our media, our government have all been complicit in the foundation of the state of Israel at the expense of the Palestinians.”
Many organisations came to the protest to show their support, including Jewish Voices for the Left (JVL), Greens for Palestine, and the Manchester Drummers for Palestine. Robert, who attended the protest alongside other members of JVL, explained why he felt it was so important for himself as a Jewish man to show his solidarity with the Palestinian people and challenge the BBC:
“There is a huge number of Jewish people who are totally opposed to the actions of Israel, the genocidal actions according to the United Nations and ICC,” he said.
“It’s a confusion, I think, based on the assumption that all Jewish people are Zionists. I fight for the Palestinian cause as I fight for other causes which involve clear and horrifying injustice.
“The BBC have left the Palestinians without a voice, there may not be direct lies but it’s the omissions and the elimination of the Palestinian perspective which has really enabled Israel.”
Lily S, an attendant who spoke about the importance of solidarity between the LGBTQ+ community and the Palestinian people, described the work done for Gazans as ‘vital’.
She said: “Our struggles are linked. There are queer people in Gaza right now being killed, there is no world in which queer people can be free while Palestine is occupied. We are fighting the same enemy.”
The BBC has not responded to the protests to a request for comment, but in a June statement responding to criticism of its Gaza coverage said: “It is vital to bring people the truth about what is happening in Gaza.”
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