At the bottom of a story about the Egyptian football disaster there is a request for personal stories
“Are you in Cairo? Have you witnessed the clashes? Please send us your stories using the form below.”. Whatever happened to impartial factual reporting at the BBC. Shame on the BBC
This loaded question is more worthy of the Sun or Fox news. I would have expected the BBC to ask ‘Are you in Egypt? What are you witnessing?’ but that won’t get them the sensationalist stories they publish these days. Shame on the BBC.
It makes me weep. In the meantime in my beloved adopted city of Luxor nothing is happening, the few tourists that are here are having a fantastic time enjoying empty sites whilst Egyptians are literally starving because the huge numbers we normally have at this time of year have deserted the city leaving us without work. There is no alternative way of earning a living in Luxor. Shame on you BBC ripping the bread out of the mouths of these people with your sensational stories.
I doubt that things are going to get better there any time soon. The news sites are now reporting that a minivan on its way to St. Catherine's was stopped and two America women kidnapped. I know it's not Luxor, but all people have to see is "Egypt" and "Americans kidnapped" and they'll start thinking about visiting another country.
ReplyDeleteI heartily agree with you Jane. My friends and I were in Luxor in November during the 2 days of elections and at no time did we feel insecure; infact, quite the opposite. I will be returning again this year with a friend to stay with her brother on the West Bank.
ReplyDeleteI heartily agree Jane. My friend and I were there in November during 2 days of the election and at no time did we feel insecure; in fact, quite the opposite. I will be back this year with a friend to visit her brother who lives on the West Bank
ReplyDeleteHello Jane
ReplyDeleteThe kidnapped women were taken in the Sinai.
It is very sad that southern Egypt is facing hardships because of what is going on in the north especially with the fact that Luxor has an international airport.
Perhaps Egyptian and Luxor Tourism needs to make this point in their marketing to the rest of the world? More marketing on peaceful Luxor?
The double whammy may be that Europe and the United states are in economic chaos and I would imagine that many people are saving money and staying home this year.
All the Best
Stephen, you are exactly right. The headline on the 24 hour news channels was "Americans kidnapped in Egypt" and when the story was then accurately reported as taking place in the Sinai. But the news reader then follows up the story by commenting to a security expert that foreigners were being targeted for violence and kidnapping throughout Egypt before asking a different question. So he left his little opinion comment in there unchallenged. The little news crawler at the bottom the screen now says "Egypt in Flames". So Americans will not go to Egypt and will then go to places like Mexico where they are targeted for kidnapping regularly and where more people were killed in the battle between the government and drug lords than were killed in Afghanistan last year.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for the rant. I have to try to reassure the group of people coming with me in March now.
James
It is so frustrating the media ought take responsibility for the inaccurate reporting
ReplyDeletehI agree, the BBC's standard of reporting on events in Egypt has been appalling. I refer specifically the report on the prime time 6 o'clock news (BBC1) on the 24th Jan 2012 by Rupert Winfield Hayes. In this report, based in Luxor, he states that the political feeling of the entire nation of +80 million Egyptians was that expressed by 2 conservative salafists...with all the usual scaremongering about 'cutting off hands', 'stoning adulterers' and 'single sex beaches'. I was disgusted by the timing of the report, the scheduling, the lack of impartiality and the sensationalism at the expense of accurate and factual reporting.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the BBC's standard of reporting on events in Egypt has been appalling of late. I refer specifically the report on the prime time 6 o'clock news (BBC1) on the 24th Jan 2012 by Rupert Winfield Hayes. In this report, based in Luxor, he states that the political feeling of the entire nation of +80 million Egyptians was that expressed by 2 conservative salafists...with all the usual scaremongering about 'cutting off hands', 'stoning adulterers' and 'single sex beaches'. I was disgusted by the timing of the report, the scheduling, the lack of impartiality and the sensationalism at the expense of accurate and factual reporting.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I am living on a different planet or maybe not as intelligent as I thought I was but does it really matter how the BBC worded its request for news about Egypt.Why have you not praised the BBC for it showing an excellent programme about 2 weeks ago with the title Children of the Revolution which was about 3 young people who were active during the beginning of the revolution.It was excellent broadcasting and when it was first on I missed it but a friend told me about it and I watched it on BBC Iplayer and am so glad I did.This was broadcasting of the highest standard.
ReplyDelete