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BBC directive: Don’t make Osama’s right-hand man in Europe look fat

Feb 7, 2012 10:22 pm By Robert Spencer

abu_qatada300.jpegHey hey hey! It’s Fat Abu! (In an image banned by the BBC)

How clueless and compromised is the mainstream media? This clueless and compromised: “BBC tells its staff: don’t call Qatada extremist,” by Neil Midgley and James Kirkup in the Telegraph, February 7 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

The BBC has told its journalists not to call Abu Qatada, the al-Qaeda preacher, an “extremist”.

In order to avoid making a “value judgment”, the corporation’s managers have ruled that he can only be described as “radical”.

Journalists were also cautioned against using images suggesting the preacher is overweight.

A judge ruled this week that the Muslim preacher, once described as “Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”, should be released from a British jail, angering ministers and MPs.

Adding to the row, Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, yesterday insisted that Qatada “has not committed any crime” and said his release has nothing to do with the European Court of Human Rights.

A British court has called Qatada a “truly dangerous individual” and even his defence team has suggested he poses a “grave risk” to national security.

Despite that background, BBC journalists were told they should not describe Qatada as an extremist. The guidance was issued at the BBC newsroom’s 9.00am editorial meeting yesterday, chaired by a senior manager, Andrew Roy.

According to notes of the meeting, seen by The Daily Telegraph, journalists were told: “Do not call him an extremist — we must call him a radical. Extremist implies a value judgment.”…

BBC staff were also cautioned against using library images suggesting the cleric is overweight, because he has “lost a lot of weight”….

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Filed Under: dhimmitude, journalistic bias, United Kingdom, Useful idiots


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