BBC’s Duplicity

(September 11, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Yesterday (2008.09.10), BBC published a news report about the SLAF bombing of the LTTE intelligence centre in Killinochchi.

First the report said that the ground sources confirmed that the bombs fell near the intelligence centre of the LTTE, whichI copy here for the reference of the readers . They said immediately below it that several NGO offices around it were slightly damaged too.

“Sri Lanka Jets Attacks Rebel Base

Sri Lankan air force jets have dropped bombs on a building which houses an intelligence headquarters of the Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said.

Fighter jets pounded the rebel centre in the northern region of Kilinochchi, the defence ministry said.

Contacts made by the BBC on the ground confirm the bombs fell in the area near the rebels' intelligence headquarters.

The region also houses several NGOs and aid agencies. The UN said one of its vehicles was slightly damaged.”

And then a short while later they removed the position of the paragraph saying that "several NGO offices were damaged" from the close proximity of the preceding paragraph saying that the "LTTE intelligence centre was hit", as if the previous orientation of the report (as seen above) would have tacitly suggested that the NGOs were operating in the close neighbourhood of the LTTE intelligence centre. Perhaps BBC might have thought it might do some harm..

However, this morning I see that they have completely deleted the section saying that ground sources informed that the intelligence centre was hit from their very same article.

Here is the new BBC news item.

“Sri Lanka Jets Attacks Rebel Base

Sri Lanka's military says its jets have bombed a Tamil Tiger intelligence centre in the north, a day after a rebel air raid on a military base.

Fighter aircraft pounded the rebel centre in the northern region of Kilinochchi, the defence ministry said.

Reports from the area confirm an air raid, injuring at least two people. The rebels said civilian homes were hit”

BBC has their freedom to concoct anything as they like, as they go along and publish on their websites. However, as a responsible media institution, if their initial ground sources were inaccurate, they could have had the courtesy of apologizing about the inaccuracy of their first report and publish the change of facts thereafter in a subsequent article.

Instead, they just published three different versions of the articles of the same incident within the span of 12 hours just changing the facts and moving the text here and there to fit their agenda!!!

I posted this gimmick of the BBC yesterday at a web blog too as soon as I noticed it. Fortunately, when I saw the BBC’s original article, I did not waste anytime and saved it knowing fully well that the BBC will do some gimmick later on with the facts.

From: Nacholibre - Sri Lanka Guardian