Is BBC biased towards LTTE?

A group of Sri Lankans demonstrated yesterday in front of BBC headquarters accusing BBC of being sympathetic to LTTE. There are plenty of examples to prove this. Take a look at the following report on BBC Sinhala service which appeared today.

Source: BBC Sinhala

US concerns on LTTE

The US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Camp who is visiting Sri Lanka said in a television interview that the LTTE is very deserving of being added on the list of banned organizations

“We think it will help cut off financial supplies and weapons procurement and the like”,he said.

The US is concerned with the LTTE provocations that threatened the CFA agreement said the assistant secretary of state.

He also said that the LTTE should give up violence if it needs to find a place within a united Sri Lanka.

Cont.…

This news refers to an interview given by the visiting U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Camp to Rupavahini TV channel. Mr. Camp gave this response to a question asked by Rupavahini as to what his government’s response towards a possible ban of LTTE in the European Union. [A full transcript of the interview is available on the website of the United States embassy in Colombo]. Here is the particular question and the answer Mr. Camp gave:

Rupavahini: What is your government’s position on attempts by the EU to list the LTTE as a terrorist group?

Camp: We have encouraged the EU to list the LTTE. We think the LTTE is very deserving of that label. We think it will help cut off financial supplies and weapons procurement and the like.

BBC Sinhala does not mention anything about the banning of LTTE in European Union. In tries to give the impression that Mr. Camp is talking about the banning of LTTE in the US. [USA has already grouped LTTE as a terrorist organization].

In fact, the first sentence in BBC Sinhala report does not have a full stop. This could be a typo, but I haven’t seen too many of these typos in BBC news articles. Could it be that somebody at BBC who is sympathetic towards LTTE removed the part “in the European Union.” from the sentence and forgot to insert a full stop?

Also notice the much watered-down headline given to the news. Associated Press reported this with the headline “US encourages European Union to ban Tamil Tigers” and BBC’s very own World Service reported this as “US urges EU to ban Tamil rebels”.

Is BBC really impartial in reporting news regarding LTTE? You decide.