BBC Propaganda and Death Penalty

Dear Steve Herrmann, Editor, News Online

BBC NEWS website publishes an article with the title: “Mid-East executions are condemned”

The first paragraph reads: “Amnesty International has said that Iran executed 94 people in 2005, while 86 were executed in Saudi Arabia.”

From AI website:

"As the world continues to turn away from the use of the death penalty, it is a glaring anomaly that China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the USA stand out for their extreme use of this form of punishment as the 'top' executioners in the world." - Irene Khan, AI Secretary General.

“In China - the country that accounts for around 80% of all executions - a person can be sentenced and executed for as many as 68 crimes, including non-violent crimes such as tax fraud, embezzlement and drug offences. 1,770 executions were reportedly carried out in China during 2005. However, a Chinese legal expert was recently quoted as stating the true figure for executions is more like 8,000.”

“There were 60 executions in the US in 2005. Two men were released from death row after evidence of their innocence emerged. The USA banned the execution of juvenile offenders in March 2005 having previously been a "world leader" in the practice.”

QUESTION: Why does the title read “Mid-East executions are condemned” ? Are the Mid-East executions the only ones to be condemned? China and USA are not in the Middle East, are they? Why does the article focus on Iran and Saudi Arabia while China (80% of all executions!) and the USA are not even in the first part of the article?

Kind regards.

Gabriele Zamparini

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Dear Neil Durkin, Amnesty International UK
Dear Mike Blakemore, Media director, Amnesty International UK


About AI’s report ‘The Death Penalty in 2005’, I would like to ask if AI has any comments on the way the BBC NEWS website reported it.

This is the BBC’s article:

Mid-East executions are condemned

I paste underneath [above] an email I sent yesterday to Steve Herrmann, Editor, BBC News Online.

Thank you for your time and I look forward for your comments.

Kind regards,
Gabriele Zamparini

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THE BBC'S REPLY:

Dear Gabriele,

Thanks for your email. We in fact published two stories on the Amnesty report yesterday. The one to which you refer was specifically about the Middle East, written for our Middle East regional page, though it also included the report‚s references to China and the US and referred (twice) to the point in the report about 80% of the executions occurring in China. The Middle East story also included the comments from Amnesty‚s Secretary General criticising China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the US. The other story we ran yesterday, which you do not refer to in your email, was our main overview story about the Amnesty report. This story led with the overall figures worldwide, highlighted the points made in the report specifically about China and also covered the other main countries mentioned. The link to this story is below. Both our stories carried the main facts and figures from the Amnesty report about the overall situation, along with quotes and a link to Amnesty‚s website.

'20,000' on death row worldwide

I hope this answers your question and clarifies matters for you.

Yours sincerely,
Steve Herrmann

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MY REPLY TO THE BBC:

Dear Steve,

Thanks for your reply.

Strange. I spent lots of time yesterday on the BBC’s website but I couldn’t find the article you just sent me. And I am not the only one. Really strange!

Also strange is the fact that the BBC felt the need to write two different articles on the same story, the AI’s report. Why?

Why did the BBC feel the need to write a specific Middle East article on this story? Why didn’t the BBC feel the same need for China? Or the USA?

Could you explain the rational behind?

Thank you again for your time.

Regards,
Gabriele Zamparini