by Malin Abeyatunge
(April 28, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian)The BBC WORLD NEWS - BBCWN (Broadcasted today (26/4/2011 at 11.am and repeated over the whole day) carried the headlines that UN Report says quote“The UN has said widespread shelling by the Sri Lankan government killed most of the tens of thousands of civilians who died in the final months of the 25-year-long war, in 2009”unquote.
Firstly, it’s appalling that such a prestigious News Bulletin like BBC has got the wires crossed by telling “UN Report”. UN has officially nothing to do with this report and how come BBCWN calls it UN Report. By this statement BBC -WN had discredited that august assembly United Nations.
For BBC’s news pundits, this is not a UN report albeit the panel was called by current UNSG Ban-Ki-Moon arbitrarily. It was a report given by three complete outsiders (not associated with the UN Staff where their credibility is in doubt) arbitrarily appointed by Ban-ki-Moon without the approval of the UN Security Council or UN Human Rights Council. Hence it’s not legal binding document as far as United Nations or Sri Lanka is concerned.
Secondly, exposing as usual BBC’s biased attitude, BBC- WN interviewed a guy from Human Rights Watch (to add fuel to fire) and some unknown pro-LTTE Activist who were more inclined towards the LTTE and conveniently avoided getting an independent authority like Rohan Guneratna or one from the Government side to balance the sensational news. The listeners would appreciate a more balanced view on this issue.
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