Thursday, August 04, 2005

Walker, Donald, Parker

The BBC have defended the different amount of coverage given to the murders of Anthony Walker and Richard Whelan - a difference they acknowledge.

The BBC has given a lot of national coverage to the murder of Anthony Walker, the 18-year-old boy killed with an axe in Merseyside last Friday.

It made the One, Six and Ten O'Clock News bulletins; there were constant live updates on News 24; and it led the UK index of the BBC News website.

The other murder, however, that of 28-year-old Richard Whelan, stabbed to death on a London bus, failed to make any of the national television bulletins, even in the immediate aftermath.


The reason ?

" ... in fact the two murders are very different. As far as I know, from reading the Press Association wires, listening to the police and reading newspaper coverage, the police are not suggesting there was any racial motive in the killing of Richard Whelan."

Hang on. As Dumb Jon points out, this is a £3bn organisation and its news editor gets her stories from other people.

But in the Anthony Walker case ? "It is this racial element to the crime that makes it different."

Ah - of course. Had Richard Whelan been killed in a racist attack, he'd have got the full One, Six and Ten o'clock treatment, wouldn't he. Just like Kriss Donald did. Not.

I wrote to the BBC Newswatch website as follows - we'll see if there's a reply. Don't wait up.

In responding to the concerns of licence fee payers over the vast difference in coverage between the Anthony Walker and Richard Whelan murders, Amanda Farnsworth says "It is this racial element to the crime that makes it different."

Could Amanda Farnsworth please then explain why the racist murders of 15 year old Kriss Donald in Glasgow and 17-year old Ross Parker in Peterborough never "made the One, Six and Ten O'Clock News bulletins; there were constant live updates on News 24; and it led the UK index of the BBC News website".

Both murders might have been considered exceptionally newsworthy even apart from the racist nature of the attacks - Kriss Donald's because of the vile nature of the assault (the story is not a pleasant read) and Ross Parkers because he was killed 10 days after 9/11 - at a time when the BBC was featuring heavily the dangers of attacks by native Brits on Muslims.

Ross Parker never existed as far as BBC radio and TV news was concerned. The sentencing of Kriss Donald's killers was reported on the PM programme and Today, but nothing was reported until the trial - a stark contrast to the Anthony Walker coverage.


Are there any other differences between the Anthony Walker and Kriss Donald cases which might cause the BBC to give one story big air and the other the oubliette ?

I'm sure there is. Just can't quite put my finger on it. Any ideas ?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I know why. The court put serious restrictions on the reporting of the case.
There was a lot of coverage after the verdict.

Anonymous said...

That's nonsense - the local newspapers managed to report in great detail.

Also, to be fair the bbc's incredibly half hearted coverage was still actually much better than any other news organisaiton. Others (all across the political spectrum) bascially ignored the case completely!