BBC is biased towards Russia

For the last couple of days, I have been reading BBC news holding my breath, and then noisily exhaling and chanting: “this must be an objective unbiased view.” But it is not! BBC is neither objective nor unbiased in their portrayal of the recent events in Estonia.

BBC predominantly quotes Russian officials, who do not spare energy pouring dirt over our government and spreading the most despicable lies, leaving the Estonian officials only a marginal place for comments. As result, Estonia has appeared as a naughty fascist country wanting to rewrite history and discriminating its Russian population.

Many important details are either mentioned on the sidelines or skipped alltogether. There has been no mention that the urgency to relocate (not remove or demolish) the Bronze Soldier monument from the city centre to a military cemetery has been growing with the increasing unrest and demonstrations at its site, that the hasty move finally happened as reaction to unprecedented looting and vandalising on the central streets of Tallinn. The fact that one demonstrator was killed through the knife of another demonstrator and not as result of clashes with police has not been mentioned.

(Picture above: Looting a shop in Tallinn city centre. Source: Postimees)

The most disappointing, however, is that the BBC has not shared half a word on the situation of Russian population in Estonia apart from citing furious nationalist comments of Russian officials on the topic.

Political scene in independent Estonia is probably the best example of “ethnic issues” in the country. At the wake of our democracy 15 years ago, we got a bunch of Russian and other national parties in addition to the classical political parties on the spectrum from socialists to conservatives. A few years ago, such parties vanished into the foggy history, their activists joining various political parties based on their ideology and platform. National parties had lost their urgency and electorate – people did not associate any more based on ethnicity, but based on their political views.

Please excuse my conspirative tone, but this happy time must have been a disappointment to someone who started stirring up forgotten ethnic feelings (=intolerance) anew and bringing people to the Bronze Soldier monument, telling them that they are discriminated and hated.

(Picture: Members of Russian parliamentary delegation inspecting the Bronze Soldier for signs of damage. Source: Postimees)

The latest news about “Russian officials lambasting Estonia” quotes many insults and lies spat out by the Russian parliamentary delegation during an official visit to our country. It has little, however, on the despicable snooping and unruly behaviour of those Russian officials – surprise visits to the places where rioters were held overnight, examining toilets of detention centres for blood stains and the Bronze Soldier for signs of damage, refusing to attend a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign affairs, and only inviting Russian media for an alternative press conference held at the Russian embassy. And there was not a word about the Russian officials demanding Estonian government to step down, which they willingly shared right before the official and supposedly diplomatic visit to our country.

BBC quotes Estonian ambassador to the Russian Federation as saying that Russian youth outside Moscow embassy has been "shouting, committing vandalism, writing on the walls of the embassy, throwing stones" as if this data was subjective and unconfirmed. It has not mentioned a word about Estonian embassy workers being stranded in the building for six days now, about OMON (Russian special security forces) having to escort the ambassador out of the building. Neither has BBC mentioned threats by the Russian youth in Moscow to demolish the Estonian embassy building with hammers and sickles, turn back every car with an Estonian licence plate at the border with Russia, or pictures of insults on the walls of the embassy and vandalising our flag. To be sure, Russian authorities have ignored all the pleas to secure safety and order around the embassy.

BBC quotes Russian news agency and Russian public officials for facts on the events in a different country – a country, which is sovereign and independent, on the events of a purely internal nature. It is not only unjust and biased – it is insulting!