Britannia Radio

May 19, 2011

Special Report

NEW REPORT: 'Preoccupation with Israel in the British media: Reporting of Israel, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia prior to the Arab Spring' British media focused disproportionately on Israel in twelve months prior to Arab Spring. To read the report in full, click here. London, 19 May 2011 - The UK broadsheet newspapers and BBC News website devoted a massive proportion of Middle East coverage to Israel in 2010, merely months before the Arab world entered a phase of unprecedented turmoil, with mass protests and two dictators ousted six weeks into 2011. A report published today by Just Journalism quantifies coverage of Israel, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia in 2010, demonstrating the consistent under-reporting of the Arab countries in stark contrast to a media-wide fixation with Israel. The report, entitled, 'Preoccupation with Israel in the British media: Reporting of Israel, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia prior to the Arab Spring' is a comprehensive review of 2010 coverage in The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Financial Times and BBC News website. The findings show that across all six media outlets, regardless of political orientation, reporting of Israel vastly outstripped reporting of all three Arab countries. This was true in news, comment and editorial categories at every single publication. The Guardian published 16 editorials on Israel in 2010 and none on Egypt, Libya or Tunisia. At the BBC News website, news coverage of the Arab countries combined and doubled still amounted to less than was written about Israel Just Journalism's Spokesperson Michael Weiss said: 'It has been true for many years that so-called Middle East reporting all too often means daily news coverage and criticism of Israel and not a great deal else. This report proves this is indeed the case, by providing the public with the raw data. Clearly, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is deserving of media attention, but the disproportionate focus on it to the near exclusion of the rest of the region has left journalists on the back foot in reacting to the current political earthquake shaking the Arab world. I hope that the British broadsheet newspapers and the BBC reflect on the findings of this report and make the necessary changes for the future.' EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Israel was by far the most reported of the four Middle East countries studied in all five broadsheets and the BBC News website in the year prior to the Arab Spring At the BBC News website news coverage of the Arab countries combined and doubled still amounted to less than was written about Israel Three out of four permanent BBC correspondents in the region demonstrated an overwhelming focus on Israel, with 82 per cent of overall correspondence coverage of the four countries devoted to Israel BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen devoted 95 per cent of his coverage of the four countries to Israel Israel was the most cited across News, Comment and Editorial categories in every news outlet Across all broadsheets, total News pieces on Egypt, Libya and Tunisia combined amounted to less than total News pieces on Israel At The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph news coverage of the Arab countries combined and tripled still amounted to less than was written about Israel Across all broadsheets, total Comment pieces on Egypt, Libya and Tunisia combined amounted to less than total Comment pieces on Israel Across all broadsheets, total Editorials on Egypt, Libya and Tunisia combined amounted to less than total Editorials on Israel Egypt was the second most reported country at all publications except for The Daily Telegraph, where Libya was the second most reported of the four countries Tunisia was the least reported of the four Middle East countries in the year prior to the Arab Spring To read the full report, click here>>