Italy quake draws little media coverage

Although the story is the top headline, coverage is scant

Unlike previous earthquake tragedies, the Italian earthquake has failed to draw the usual saturation coverage from news channels. Although the news broke in the early hours of Monday, pictures were slow to role in. In Britain several domestic stories also took up much airtime which also pushed the Italian earthquake back on the news agenda. For much of the day CNN continued with regularly scheduled programming with Living Golf and World Sport remaining in place. Other news channels also brought scant coverage of events happening in Italy. Although al-Jazeera, Press TV, France 24 and Russia Today all covered the story, none gave it more than a few minutes airtime.

The 6.3 earthquake struck at 03:32 local time [01:32 GMT] at a depth of only 10 km. Striking in a rural area it has hampered rescue efforts. The tremors also hit towns and villages with extremely old buildings and hardly any remained unscathed. Initially more than 50,000 people were said to have been made homeless in the town of L’Aquila, which means eagle in Italian. But by Tuesday morning the town’s mayor revised this figure down to 10,000. However this still accounts for at least 1 in 7 of the population.

The death toll rose however. First reports indicated a relatively low death toll of some 50 individuals. As night fell the figure had risen to 91. Official figures released on Tuesday morning put the death toll at 179. But many people remain trapped in rubble and rescue efforts are continuing despite there being relatively little coverage of events on the ground.

The effort to dig injured people from the rubble of the ancient town has been difficult. Several aftershocks as large as 4.9 on the Richter scale have shaken the region making the search extremely dangerous. The weather has so far remained clear, but with temperatures falling to as low as 3 degrees Celsius at night, it is imperative to reach those trapped as quickly as possible. Day time temperatures are a little more tolerable reaching about 16 degrees, but Wednesday may bring rain which will add to the problems faced in the rescue effort.

At least 1,500 people have been injured and rescuers have pulled some 100 people alive from the rubble. Authorities say at least 34 people are still missing, but it is not clear whether all the rural areas have been searched. The BBC, which have given the most extensive news coverage, visited the deserted village of Onna where hardly a single property has remained unscathed. The thousands made homeless by this disaster face an uncertain future. New homes will almost certainly have to be built. Even those still standing remain structurally unsafe. As to who will pay for the reconstruction, is also an unknown quantity [BBC / Sky News / CNN].

Iran's Press TV arrives in Europe

Press TV joins the ever growing number of news channels on Astra

Iran’s news channel Press TV has joined the free-to-air line-up of channels available in Europe via the Astra satellite [channel 525]. Along with Sky News, the BBC News channel, CNN, al-Jazeera English, France 24, Russia Today and Euro News it brings the number of rolling news stations to eight. Though not entirely geared to news coverage, China’s international station CCTV-9 also complements the ever increasing line up of world media broadcasters providing different slants to news around the globe.

As regards its global footprint CNN still provides the best coverage, even available in hotels across China where foreign media is still highly restricted. BBC World is also becoming more accessible in many countries but lags way behind that of CNN. Europe is privileged in as much as it is served by many news channels both domestic and global though some remain encrypted and are only available by subscription. MSNBC, Fox News and India’s NDTV are available on Astra but require a monthly fee.

Press TV’s coverage is in sharp contrast to that of other broadcasters. Opinion aired on the channel is often particularly critical of Israel. During some of today’s programming, a Beirut correspondent, Matthew Cassel, described coverage on CNN and the BBC as biased in respect to pictures it showed. He claimed that while the suffering experienced by Israelis at the receiving end of rockets launched by Hamas was shown, there were few pictures of the suffering endured by those in Gaza. Indeed the rolling pictures shown on Press TV have been far more graphic than those seen on other television news channels. Al-Jazeera has shown some pictures which are often described by TV anchors as ‘disturbing’, but Sky, the BBC and CNN have tended to shield viewers from the most graphic pictures. The BBC have described scenes of carnage and the condition of some victims, but pictures tend to be of destroyed buildings and long shot of distant explosions and flying F-15s.

Bardia Honardar, Press TV’s anchor, said the latest death toll was 385 and that 1,700 had been injured during Israel’s bombardment while they had suffered losses amounting to 5 dead. The numbers of dead vary between different broadcasters. The BBC and al-Jazeera are saying that there are now 360 dead in Gaza while Sky states “at least 360” have perished. Meanwhile, CNN says that the death toll has risen to 375.

Time given over the story also varies considerably. Though somewhat rambling in its coverage, Press TV is almost constant in its reporting. Al-Jazeera and CNN have given almost equal time to the story while the BBC and Sky ‘s reportage has begun to wane after four days of fighting. While it remains the top story for other channels such as RT and France 24, the coverage has dropped to only a few minutes per hour.

[CNN / Sky News / BBC / al-Jazeera / CCTV / Russia Today / France 24 / Press TV / Euronews]