BBC downplays Hezbollah's history of violence
While neither praised Fadlallah in an official capacity - Nasr made the comment on her Twitter account, while Guy wrote about her personal encounters with him on her blog - both soon came under heavy criticism for their statements. In the case of Nasr, CNN announced that she would no longer be working for the company, and that her tweet ‘did not meet CNN's editorial standards.’
Both of these stories received coverage in the UK media, with all the outlets explaining that Fadlallah was seen as a controversial figure because of his ties to Hezbollah. However, there were noticeable differences in the way that publications presented the militant group.
The Daily Telegraph was the most critical, with its article providing a substantive background on Hezbollah’s history of violence. In ‘Britain's Lebanese ambassador praises Hizbollah founder’, Damien McElroy and Adrian Blomfield noted how the group ‘has been proscribed by the UK as a terrorist organisation since 2008’, and that, after being formed, it had taken ‘dozens of foreigners as hostages, including Terry Waite, John McCarthy and Brian Keenan’. The journalists also cited the outrage of ‘Israeli relatives of those who died during Hizbollah rocket strikes’ and mentioned that Fadlallah had issued fatwas (religious edicts) which ‘authorised suicide bombers who attacked American troops or Israel.’ Hezbollah gained notoriety in 1983 for a suicide attack on a US military base in Lebanon that killed over 300 marines.
This piece stood in stark contrast to the picture painted in the BBC’s article on Nasr’s dismissal. ‘CNN sacks editor over Muslim cleric Twitter remark’ described how Nasr had tweeted her comment and then lost her position, due to the fact that he was ‘customarily described as the spiritual leader of the militant movement Hezbollah when it was formed in 1982 - a claim both he and the group denied.’ No mention was made of why this connection might make many people view Fadlallah as unsuitable for praise, until the final sentence: ‘The US and Israel view Hezbollah as a terrorist group.’ Even here, no explanation was given for why Hezbollah are seen in this way.
The BBC News website then reported on the heavy criticism that Frances Guy had received, after blogging about her respect for Fadlallah. ‘UK envoy's praise for Lebanon cleric draws Israel anger’ stated that ‘Hezbollah's military wing is proscribed in the UK as a terrorist organisation’ and included a quote by an Israeli spokesperson about rocket attacks.
It was also noteworthy that, in contrast to The Daily Telelgraph, when the article described how Fadlallah had ‘advocated suicide attacks as a means of fighting Israel, and has been linked to the 1983 suicide bombings [of the US marines]’, this was immediately followed by the fact that he had also ‘condemned the 9/11 terror attacks and had relatively progressive views on the role of women in society.’ While the article in The Daily Telegraph concentrated on the controversy surrounding Fadlallah and his connections, the BBC News article gave more coverage to the outpouring of grief that his death had prompted in Lebanon.
In both of the BBC News articles, it is noticeable how little explanation was given for why individuals might feel very strongly about individuals in prominent positions praising a man with strong ideological ties to a group with a long history of violent acts. Unlike The Daily Telegraph, which explained why many view Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, the BBC’s primary response was to simply state that some countries do, while giving minimal background information that would enable readers to evaluate this claim.