Why isn't the BBC telling us what caused the Ballymena riots?
Does anyone know what's actually happening in Ballymena, in Northern Ireland? If you've just been following the news on the BBC, it's actually quite hard to work out what has led to the violence which has injured at least 32 police officers.
The initial news bulletins told us that there rioting youths were protesting about a sexual attack on a girl and that two teenage boys were in custody facing charges. My first thought – reverting to the Troubles – was that there was a sectarian element to the whole thing. But we also learned that the police condemned the riots as racist thuggery; so, not sectarianism, it seems, but something to do with race.
A few further details came to light yesterday. We found out that the rioters were still rioting. A local MP popped up on the news to say that people were unsettled by the number of immigrants in the area. And the BBC informed us that the 14-year-old youths – who deny sexual assault – confirmed their names and ages through a Romanian interpreter at Coleraine Magistrates' Court. But these glimmers of information still offered little clarity. Wouldn't it be easier and simpler if the BBC just said that two Romanian boys living in the area are accused of an offence? Instead, we're left to make informed guesses ourselves about what's actually going on.
The coverage of events in Ballymena brings to mind that of the Southport murders last July. There were allegations that the murderer was an asylum seeker; these allegations were promptly dismissed as 'fake news' or misinformation. The BBC's reporters told us that the attacker was born in Britain and living in Southport. We know now, of course, that he is Axel Rudakubana, whose Rwandan parents came here after the genocide. That fact – that his parents were from Rwanda – wasn't irrelevant to the case; their son was, it seems, obsessed with the genocide and indeed with extreme violence of all sorts. Trying to pretend that he was just some random local wasn't helpful; people inevitably came to their own conclusions.
If you've just been following the news on the BBC, it's quite hard to work out what is happening
The Dublin riots in 2023 happened after an Algerian was charged with stabbing a school assistant and three children, seriously injuring a five-year-old girl. But the authorities – and the news – carefully glossed over the bad-taste question of the background of the alleged attacker; social media inevitably filled the vacuum, which is precisely why the riots had an anti-immigrant aspect. Riad Bouchaker is yet to stand trial and denies the charges.
Won't state broadcasters ever learn that not telling us things isn't helpful? People work things out for themselves. And if they're not told clearly by the BBC, or whoever, what the background is of the alleged perpetrators in these cases, well, the public is going to arrive at its own conclusions. This was what I did, only amplified by social media, and presumably what the Ballymena rioters have done.
The sense that elements of a story are being kept from us for our own good – that is, lest people get angry about it – only adds to the idea that we're not really grown up enough to be trusted with the truth. It's not a great way to calm things down, you know.
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Scottish Sun
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