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HR Prompts BBC Photo Caption Change

BBC News Online‘s coverage of the $38 billion US military aid package for Israel included the following Associated Press photo of Israeli armored vehicles replete with a strangely disconnected caption: What have Israeli…

Simon Plosker
September 14, 2016
12:00 am

Reading time: 2 minutes

What have Israeli armored vehicles got to do with settlement construction?

Nothing!

We contacted the BBC to make this very point. Shortly afterwards the caption was changed:

Incidentally, the caption as published by the AP reads: “An Israeli military vehicle drives during training in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, near the border with Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016. Israel is denying Syrian government claims that its forces shot down a warplane and a drone near the Israeli-controlled part of the Golan Heights. Israeli warplanes have conducted several air raids on Syrian army positions over the past weeks after stray shells hit the Israeli-occupied area. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)”

While the photo arguably has very little relevance to the BBC’s story, at least the updated BBC caption no longer misleads in the same way.

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Tags: BBC, military aid, photo bias, settlements, success

Simon Plosker

With over two decades of experience in various non-governmental organizations in the UK and Israel, Simon Plosker returned to HonestReporting in October 2022 as Editorial Director having previously been part of the organization’s management team from 2005 to 2020. Prior to his first spell at HonestReporting, Simon worked in Israel for NGO Monitor, BICOM, and served for a short period in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. He was Managing Editor of the Geneva-based NGO United Nations Watch for two years before moving back to the frontline defending Israel from media bias. Simon has a BSoc.Sc in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics. He immigrated to Israel in 2001 from London.

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