The BBC News channel, like most of the mainstream media, has given extensive coverage this morning to comments by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson about cyber-threats to the UK from Russia.
It seems not, however, to have mentioned revelations that Theresa May conducted a meeting in Downing Street with her Ukrainian counterpart in the presence of a man who has just been arrested in Ukraine as a Russian spy.
Sky News is giving the matter prominence – but the nation’s state broadcaster, so far, appears conspicuously silent about it.
Sky’s Alistair Bunkall tweeted the news yesterday:
The alleged spy is Stanislav Yezhov, the Ukrainian head of protocol, who translated the ‘private talks’ – which included discussion of Ukrainian military capabilities as well as sanctions against Russia, according to a Downing Street press release:
They agreed on the importance of maintaining sanctions on Russia to keep up political pressure until the full implementation of the Minsk Agreement, and they discussed the importance of improving the capability of the Ukrainian armed forces.”
As Bunkall observed, the UK co-operates militarily with Ukraine and Yezhov would have been present for the entire, extremely sensitive discussion:
The fact that an entire, sensitive discussion was conducted in the presence of an accused Russian spy is a significant embarrassment for both Downing Street and the security services – and a substantial story.
Yet while Sky is running with it and even the right-wing press has mentioned it, as far as we can find BBC News appears, as of the time of publication of this article, to have omitted it entirely from its broadcast coverage.
Edit: A BBC reporter has pointed out that the issue was mentioned on last night’s News at Ten. It received 17 seconds of coverage just before a piece of over two minutes on iPhones slowing down. While the iPhone information was repeated throughout coverage this morning, the Yezhov information was not.
According to a tweet by the author of the BBC news website article, even he was unaware News at Ten had covered it at all until he checked following the publication of this article.
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The trick to fair and balanced reporting, on radio and TV, is report it once, as late as possible, then rarely, if ever, revisit it.
That seems to be the way Radio 4 and Up All Night manage it.
THE BBC TURNS ITSELF INTO A RIGHT WING PROPAGANDA MACHINE!