{"id":326085,"date":"2017-09-15T02:13:42","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T01:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/bbc-demands-protection-for-its-journalists-after-criticism-from-labour-supporters-over-bias-claims\/"},"modified":"2017-09-15T02:13:42","modified_gmt":"2017-09-15T01:13:42","slug":"bbc-demands-protection-for-its-journalists-after-criticism-from-labour-supporters-over-bias-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/bbc-demands-protection-for-its-journalists-after-criticism-from-labour-supporters-over-bias-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC demands protection for its journalists after criticism from Labour supporters over bias claims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>        Politicians must do more to defend journalists who are abused \u201con almost a daily basis,\u201d BBC Chairman Sir David Clementi has said, after political editor Laura Kuenssberg was booed and criticised online by Corbyn supporters accusing her of bias. <\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/396350-laura-kuennsberg-bbc-bodyguard\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2017.07\/thumbnail\/5968b18dfc7e9313738b4567.jpg\" alt=\"BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg \u00a9 Steve Back \/ Barcroft Images \/ Getty Images\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>Clementi says female journalists suffer <em>\u201cincreasingly explicit and aggressive\u201d<\/em> abuse on Twitter and Facebook amid an<em> \u201cassault\u201d<\/em> on truth and accuracy from news outlets, according to the Telegraph.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the Royal Television Society convention in Cambridge, he said:<em> \u201cI have become increasingly aware of the abuse that some of them \u2013 particularly female journalists \u2013 are subject to, on an almost daily basis.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe must support our journalists and call out the abuse they are receiving. These days, there is much more abuse.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Clementi says the trend is partly a result of some people living in online <em>\u201cecho chambers\u201d<\/em> where they rarely hear opposing views. <br \/>He also highlighted booing and heckling at real-world political events and press conferences.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt occurs in plain sight, at press conferences and political gatherings on all sides. Politicians cannot stand by and watch \u2013 they must confront any abuse, and make it clear that it is intolerable.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The BBC\u2019s Kuenssberg was heckled at events during the general election over claims she is biased against the Labour left. She also faced an online petition calling for her dismissal, which was taken down after a string of abusive comments.<\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/374136-bbc-kuenssberg-corbyn-bias\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2017.01\/thumbnail\/587f90fdc36188e14f8b4589.jpg\" alt=\"Laura Kuenssberg \u00a9 ZUMAPRESS.com \/ Global Look Press\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>During the election campaign, the BBC expressed fears for her safety and she was assigned protection staff.<\/p>\n<p>Kuenssberg has been regularly accused of bias. Earlier this year, she was found guilty of misreporting stories about Corbyn, but no proof of deliberate bias was found.<\/p>\n<p>An internal investigation by the BBC Trust, however, found that Kuenssberg had breached the BBC\u2019s impartiality and accuracy guidelines in her report on Corbyn\u2019s views on shoot-to-kill policies in the aftermath of the Paris attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Her colleague Nick Robinson has also had to fend off accusations of pro-Tory bias and anti-Corbyn reporting.<\/p>\n<p>Although Clementi did not refer to any particular journalists by name, Clementi said: <em>\u201cQuestions about government policies, which seem to some parts of our audience natural questions to ask, are regarded by others as impertinent and disrespectful.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cBut holding those in power \u2013 or seeking power \u2013 to account, asking them what soundbites actually mean, is a key part of our job.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt is the responsibility of our journalists to ask the question \u2013 even if it is direct, awkward or unwelcome. I have enormous respect for all journalists, not just BBC journalists, who do this day in, day out.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Clementi said he was <em>\u201cfollowing closely\u201d<\/em> the efforts of Twitter and Facebook to clamp down on online abuse.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI hope the social media platforms do even more,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/403340-bbc-bias-protection-journalists\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Politicians must do more to defend journalists who are abused \u201con almost a daily basis,\u201d BBC Chairman Sir David Clementi has said, after political editor Laura Kuenssberg was booed and criticised online by Corbyn supporters accusing her of bias. Read more Clementi says female journalists suffer \u201cincreasingly explicit and aggressive\u201d abuse on Twitter and Facebook [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":326086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-326085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}