Let’s be clear – this was no mistake. The BBC’s decision to use the image of 16-year-old Ismail Moradi, a witness to the mass shooting in Sweden, under a headline about a police manhunt wasn’t just irresponsible. It was calculated.
As content creator @ani.says2 (TikTok) explains in this clip, this isn’t just sloppy journalism, it’s part of a systemic pattern in Western media where people of Colour are criminalised by association, while White perpetrators are shielded. The BBC, with all its editorial checks, didn’t just accidentally mislead its audience into thinking Moradi was a suspect. They made a choice to perpetuate the same racist framing that has justified everything from police brutality to state violence against Black and Brown people. Whether through biased language, selective images or outright disinformation, these narratives serve a purpose.
What do you think, was this innocent oversight or yet another example of mainstream media propaganda at work?
Video credit: @ani.says2