Fig. 1. Courtesy of the BBC Trust, 2012.
The BBC Trust, the governing body of the BBC, released a report titled A BBC Trust report on the impartiality and accuracy of the BBC's coverage of the events known as the "Arab Spring", authored by Edward Mortimer, the Senior Program Advisor at the Salzburg Global Seminar. The review includes content analysis and audience research.
From the report's summary of findings:
The Content Analysis found widespread use of the word "regime", which carries an implicit value judgement. As far as I have been abble to discover, no clear or consistent guidance on the use of this term was issued.
The narrative of an "Arab Spring", espoused at the time by many Arabs as well as Western experts, was a natural and appropriate one for the BBC to use. But with hindsight, it should perhaps have been questioned more closely, and at an earlier stage.
...
[concerning Egypt]
... Although the excitement and euphoria of the protesting crowds were well conveyed, a wide variety of voices were heard, including supporters of Mubarak and members of the Muslim Brotherhood. (But, with hindsight, the importance of the "Salafist" current of opinion was missed at first.)
...
[concerning Libya]
In particular, there was relatively little coverage of human rights violations by the anti-Gaddafi side, until after its capture of Tripoli in August. Statements about "African merceneries" fighting on Gaddafi's side were too often uncritically accepted, and the real plight of sub-Saharan migrant workers in Libya during the conflict was under-reported.
...
[concerning Bahrain]
The BBC, at least on its domestic news bulletins, initially underplayed the sectarian aspect of the conflict, and did not adequately convey the motives of those (Sunni Arabs and expatriates) who supported the monarchy in resisting demands for full democracy.
...
[concerning Syria]
While coverage of the insurrection during the winter of 2011-12 was outstanding (especially Paul Wood's reports from Homs), there could and should have been more investigation of the component strands within the opposition, its ideological roots, and the kind of regime that its victory might bring to power.
The full report, content analysis and audience research are available for PDF download here.