The recent BBC coverage of the indictment and pending extradition of Richard O'Dwyer for abetting internet piracy has been pretty overtly biased in favor of the defendant. 
The BBC Fails To Provide Context If It Detracts From Their Narrative
>> SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2012
The main thrust of O'Dwyer's story, the way the BBC tells it, is that the young man is facing serious consequences from a foreign legal system for "simply linking" to illegal content. The legal question was, until yesterday's court decision, whether or not what he'd done was a crime under UK law. In his live reports from outside the courthouse on the BBC News Channel yesterday (Jan. 13), BBC correspondent constantly sanitized O'Dwyer's alleged act by saying the he "simply linked" to illegal content. At one point the reporter clearly stressed the words "simply linking", raising his voice to emphasize the point.
The legal charges against O'Dwyer do not refer to his actions as "simply" anything. That's a BBC editorial decision, revealing the report's personal opinion of the legal issue at hand. He did it over and over again, so it must be condoned by BBC News bosses.
The BBC News Online article is less overtly opinionated, but does give plenty of space to the defendant's complaints. The article also relates the pure speculation from O'Dwyer and his lawyer that he's being used as a "guinea pig" by US authorities in their efforts expand their powers to enforce copyright law. Then there's the sympathy from Victoria Derbyshire.
Essentially, the BBC is presenting O'Dwyer as an innocent student, who did nothing wrong, and is being treated unfairly by a grasping US. But there's some important background context which the BBC curiously fails to provide, and which makes a lot of difference in how the audience might understand the story. Here's what the BBC doesn't want you to know (h/t pounce for the extra info):
Sunday, 15 January 2012
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