What the BBC Didn't Want You to Know About the Belfast 'Romanians'

[paul750]

Sometimes working out what's going in Britain by listening to the BBC can be almost as confusing as working out what's going in Iran by relying on the official Islamic Republic News Agency. This morning's Today programme report on the 115 "Romanians" driven out of their homes in Belfast by racist threats was a perfect case in point.

If you listened to the report carefully, you would have realised that the victims weren't simply Romanians. They were in fact Roma. But not for one second did anyone from the BBC acknowledge this, nor is it mentioned on the BBC website. It only slipped out by accident when a local race-relations worker interviewed on the programme happened to mention the victims' ethno-cultural identity.

Should we be bothered by the BBC's gag-inducingly PC circumlocution? You bet we should. The BBC - more's the pity - remains arguably the most trusted disseminator of news in Britain. Yet here, it chose to treat its audience like children: children who simply could not be trusted to be told the full truth unless they came to the "wrong" conclusions.

Now you may feel, as I do, that it is no more excusable to persecute someone because they belong to a gipsy group than it is to persecute them for their nationality. (Or indeed, their sexual orientation, or their educational background or social class). But it is up to us, as grown-ups, to make up our own minds on our moral position on these issues, not for the BBC to do it for us by withholding key facts.

It is precisely this kind of mealy-mouthed disingenuousness on the subject of race and identity which drives a put-upon electorate mad with frustration and despair. So long as the BBC - our three main political parties too - go on disseminating this Orwellian version of reality, the far Right will continue to grow.


Posted By: James Delingpole
Telegraph.co.uk

[Clegg]

Not mentioning someone's ethnicity is 'Orwellian'?

I don't think that the morality of the situation is changed a single bit by the background of the people involved.

[paul750]

I agree with him. While there's absolutely no excuse for what happened, the news media treats its viewers like imbeciles at times. There's no reason why the news can't relay all of the information it has to its viewers and let them think for themselves.

[Clegg]

I disagree with much of the article.

First of all, the idea that there was some kind of BBC cover-up attempt, and that the information 'slipped out by accident' is rather silly. There are different ethnicities within many foreign countries, but if these people were Indian, I wouldn't expect a detailed report of their particular ethno-cultural background and religion; telling us their nationality is adequate.

Besides, there was footage of the people on the BBC news, so their appearance and skin tone was clear for all to see.

Writing it as 'Romanians' suggests that he sees them as something else. Should immigrants be identified by ethnicity, not by nationality? Considering that their families have lived in Romania for centuries, I think it's accurate to describe them as Romanians.

I dislike the BBC, but nit-picking something like this and then saying "ah, this proves..." is a bit silly IMO.

[Davros?]

I lost a lot of respect for the BBC when they kept on reporting on BBC news about how global warming was going to kill us all and it was all the viewers fault they were completely biased on the topic, in the end they were forced to drop the amount of reports they did on the subject due to a large amount of complaints.

[paul750]

Originally Posted by Clegg

I disagree with much of the article.

First of all, the idea that there was some kind of BBC cover-up attempt, and that the information 'slipped out by accident' is rather silly. There are different ethnicities within many foreign countries, but if these people were Indian, I wouldn't expect a detailed report of their particular ethno-cultural background and religion; telling us their nationality is adequate.

Besides, there was footage of the people on the BBC news, so their appearance and skin tone was clear for all to see.

Writing it as 'Romanians' suggests that he sees them as something else. Should immigrants be identified by ethnicity, not by nationality? Considering that their families have lived in Romania for centuries, I think it's accurate to describe them as Romanians.

I dislike the BBC, but nit-picking something like this and then saying "ah, this proves..." is a bit silly IMO.

I'm not 100% educated on the subject of Romania and it's people, but from the little I've read - and it's certainly not that much, even in Romania itself, the 'real' Romanians don't think much of these gypsies. I wouldn't call it nitpicking if it's something that's relevant.

I'm slightly confused as to the current status of those people. From what I gather, they need a work permit to work in the UK, and even then, the jobs they can do are very limited. So the question has to be asked: is the housing being paid for them. If so, what exactly is that contributing to society? It's fairly obvious that the housing is going to be in working class areas, and any hint of 'shifty' behaviour or being in large groups is going to cause negative views by people who are probably insecure as it is. I've personally encountered some of them outside bars selling flowers etc. A lot of people see them as nothing more than beggars or 'bums'.

I understand that the situation they're in is not one to be envious about, as it's awful. But once again it seems like the government doesn't know exactly what the hell it is doing, and is being incredibly naive over the whole migration thing in general. In Northern Ireland, the natives themselves are just about getting along after years of fighting. How on earth can we expect everything to run smoothly when an influx of other people arrive?

Whether or not the BBC or media in general has an agenda or not, I see no reason why there cannot be a bigger picture painted for the audience when the news reports are broadcast.

[The RealDeal]

More sheeple need to wake up !


The BBC is a government owned agency, the ' Licence Fee ' is another form of tax.

BBC is a Government Propaganda machine.


BBC =

BRITISH BULL**** CONTROLLER.

BRITISH BIASED CORPORATION

BE BULL****ED CITIZENS

and many more.



WTC7 collapsed "unexpectedly", "due to fires" at 5.20 ET. The BBC jumped the squibs by over 20 minutes to broadcast an offically-issued statement about the collapse, with WTC7 clearly visible behind the live reporter...

[K.Webster]

Ireland have a problem with Romanian gypsies?

Well I have a problem with Irish pikeys, the majority of which are lying, thieving, aggressive scumbags. I would happily trade. Let the Romanians come here, and send the pikeys back to where they belong.

[The RealDeal]

Originally Posted by timba1988

Ireland have a problem with Romanian gypsies?

Well I have a problem with Irish pikeys, the majority of which are lying, thieving, aggressive scumbags. I would happily trade. Let the Romanians come here, and send the pikeys back to where they belong.

Romanian gypsies are the same, alot of them live around here and have done so for many years, there is now more of them than ever and all they do is hang about the City centre harassing people for money or trying to sell stupid pink hats, Roses and light up key chains etc. to drunks at night.

Other than that they tend to pick alot of pockets and steal when they can.

You don't want them mate.

[The Monk]

I love how the BBC completely ignore the factors which may contribute to this sense of anger in Northern Ireland. Yes, i'm talking about the general behaviour of many of these Romanians and their taking advantage of the benefits system.

Originally Posted by timba1988

Ireland have a problem with Romanian gypsies?

Well I have a problem with Irish pikeys, the majority of which are lying, thieving, aggressive scumbags. I would happily trade. Let the Romanians come here, and send the pikeys back to where they belong.

They are as bad as each other.