1. The followingnewsbulletinappearedonthe BBC website at20:17 on the 22nd
February2015. The
article discussesanappeal forreturnfromthe relativesof the three girlswhorecentlyfledtoSyria
to become Jihadi Brides.Itisbotha seriousandsensational storyaswell asamatter of public
interest.
Due to the taboosubject of the article and the increasedfearof terrorismthathas beenenforcedon
societyaswell asfact that the story involvesthe handlingof minors they’ll have beencertain
constraintsintermsof ethicsandeditorial guidelines.
Whenwritingsucharticlesthe journalistwill have hisownethical moralshoweverhe mayhave to
juggle withthese basedonthe BBCethicsandwhat theywanthimto reportas well aswhathe’s
allowedtoreportinorderto avoidliability.The BBCguidelinesstate that‘the physical and
emotional welfare and dignityof childrenandyoungpeople isprotectedduringthe makingand
broadcast of our content,irrespective of anyconsentgivenbythemoranyparent.’Thiscode is
apparentlyobviouswithinthe article asnothingharsh issaidagainstthe girlsortheiractions evenif
we do not feel sympathetictowardsthemasa society. The BBC isa publicservice providerand

2. therefore presumablyunbiased,howeveritcanbe arguedthat theyhave a left-wingbias;theyhave
an ideology thatwe shouldsupportsocial equalityandegalitarianism.Therefore,evenif ethicallythe
journalistoras a societywe feel asif there committingacrime or treasonagainsttheircountrythe
BBC is still ‘protecting’themdue totheirage andethical newsroompolicies.There isnoclear
evidence withinthe article astowhytheylefttobecome jihadi bride;howeverthe bulletindoes
state that ‘the internet plays a big part in the radicalisation processes’- this is due to the fact that
one of the girls was in contact with a young woman over twitter who left for Syria in early 2013.
However, they do not physically place blame on her- by making a false statement with no clear
evidence as to why they left or if they were persuaded to would be defamation and therefore
damage the reputation of the individual or girls and cause a court case for the BBC.
Although the above bulletin is from an online article, the same story appeared in all newspapers,
TV bulletins and radio programmes. The story is of a national interest and public interest- it
physically concerns us rather than it being something that is just of interest to us such as a funny
video would be. Whilst it’s relevant to us as a country domestically it’s also of importance
internationally. As a country we want to know why they’re doing it, how they’re doing it and
what’s causing them to do it, however other countries will want to prevent young people from
doing it. It affects everyone on an international scale and therefore was a story that had
immediacy- it was report it on all news sources the day it happened.
If I was a journalists there are a few different directions I would take in order to keep it going. The
first would be gathering clear evidence as to why and how they’re being influenced, speaking to
other young Muslims and gathering their views and if at all possible speaking to young people
who were forced into or escaped from the terrorist group. However since this bulletin become
public a follow up story has appeared. The government have no found out that a man in
Birmingham has been in contact with ISIS and promoting them over the internet to young people,
however they’ve yet to shut him down- a further follow up angle from this would be finding out
why they’ve done nothing to stop him yet. With the recent phone hacking scandals the
government and News production companies have the power to find out information- however is
this a preach of privacy even if he is a criminal and how far could you take it before they had the
power to hack our own phones?
Due to the nature of the story, the only available audio was that from the interview with the
parents- although this did not happen, a live plead of return could have been used within a TV or
radio bulletin.