BBC staff quit journalists’ union after being told to dress in Palestinian colours

[kj]

I think it’s ridiculous for any company to tell their employees to celebrate stuff like this. If you want to, that should be your choice, but wtf business is it of theirs to tell people to celebrate something like this? Just do your job.

[mattkime]

kj wrote:
I think it’s ridiculous for any company to tell their employees to celebrate stuff like this.

It was the union.

[kj]

I saw that and thought about what to call it, but whatever you could call something that is a work related entity. What business does the union have telling you what you feel celebratory about?

[Tiangou]

kj wrote:
I saw that and thought about what to call it, but whatever you could call something that is a work related entity. What business does the union have telling you what you feel celebratory about?

They are not celebrating.

They are showing solidarity with their dead comrades as they call for an investigation into how those deaths occurred.

Targeting journalists and other non-combatants is a war crime.

[Janit]

Any union tasked with looking after the interests of their journalist members should full well understand the issue of neutrality and professional ethics when it comes to journalism. The union is blurring the line between supporting their fellow journalists and taking a political position.

Calling it "Day of Action for Palestine" and asking their members to wear Palestinian symbols and colors makes the event political, not simply a demonstration in support of fellow journalists. They are asking their members to take a "side."

Why show solidarity with only the Palestinians journalists who have died during this conflict? Where is the mention of the Israeli journalists killed during this conflict? Has the union no desire for solidarity with them?

Why are the Jewish members resigning? Because they are wrestling with this boundary every day and have a deeply examined knowledge of the issues involved. They know exactly what journalistic ethics requires. They also understand the dog whistles and biases that can lie under the political language being used to describe this event.

The format of this "Day of Action" is really poorly conceived. If the union wants to act in support of the journalists affected by this war, they need to do it differently.

[Tiangou]

Janit wrote:
Why show solidarity with only the Palestinians journalists who have died during this conflict? Where is the mention of the Israeli journalists killed during this conflict? Has the union no desire for solidarity with them?

False equivalence.

Israel has by all appearances and occasionally by admission been targeting journalists in Gaza. They have a history of targeting/murdering journalists. This advocacy for a response to the murder of civilian journalists in Gaza is not some sudden and shocking revelation for Jews associated with the organization.

Meanwhile there is no evidence that Hamas or any state is targeting/murdering journalists in Israel.

[SteveG]

So the Jews quit the journalists union because they hate journalists?

The BBC is notorious for it's anti-Israel reporting. Apparently it stems from the individuals staffing it's storytelling.

[Tiangou]

Steve G. wrote:
So the Jews quit the journalists union because they hate journalists?

No.

The nationalized press in Israel is using disinformation to push a false narrative that distracts from the recent International Criminal Court decision against them.

They do this sort of thing a LOT.

Remember just a few weeks ago when they got news agencies around the world reporting on a hate-filled crime spree against Jews in Amsterdam when it turned out that Maccabi soccer hooligans were the provocateurs, rioting and attacking Muslims? The world was denouncing the violent antisemitism when in fact it was primarily the Muslims who were the victims and the Jews screaming calls for genocide.

Because almost every news outlet ran with the message that it was the Maccabi fans who were the victims of antisemitic assaults, and most didn't bother to pull their stories when it turned out that they were mislead by a massive propaganda machine, a reader doing a basic Google search or doom-scrolling through TwitterX will see story after story about antisemitic violence.

It feeds a narrative that Bibi can use to justify any horror his government inflicts in the territories or Lebanon.

This is how modern propaganda works.

Learn how to read for the facts, not the narrative.

[SteveG]

then why did they quit?

[Tiangou]

Steve G. wrote:
then why did they quit?

Who quit?

From your link:

"Charlotte Henry, a freelance journalist who has also resigned..."

A blogger/podcaster who wasn't actually employed in a union job just "quit" that job she never had over a request to wear pro-Palestinian clothing that never occurred.