scarcely important protest does not go on for ever

A few unanswered questions from the BBC's brief report on yesterday's blockade - the most notable feature of which is contained in its choice of title:

Campaigners blockading oil refinery in Essex disperse

!!!

Question: How long after the protesters arrived did they disperse?

The BBC doesn't say. Just that:

Murray Smith from Crude Awakening said the activists decided to leave as they felt they had achieved their objectives for the day.'1

Question: What was the effect of the 7 hour long blockade?

The BBC doesn't say. Just that:

A spokeswoman for Petroplus, which owns Coryton refinery, had said during the protest that operations were running normally and the protest had been "a police matter" as it was on a public highway.

However, protesters claimed to have stopped about 50 tankers travelling on The Manorway.

Qu: Could the BBC have bothered to find out -

a) whether oil is normally transported out of the refinery along the Manorway (and how much, in 7 hours)

b) whether there are any other routes out of the refinery, and whether these were used yesterday (there are none)

c) what 'operations running normally' means, if tankers were unable to leave the refinery for 7 hours

Qu: Whose interests are the BBC serving?

(This is not a question)

======================

My complaint to the beeb:

1. Why do you claim in your report at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11559139, about the blockade at the Coryton refinery, that 'Hundreds of climate campaigners who gathered outside an oil refinery in Essex have been dispersed by police.'? Can you tell me where this information came from, and how you verified that it was true.

2. Why do you not record the real effect of the blockade, instead of merely reporting contradictory opinions from the oil company, on the one hand, and the protestors, on the other? It would be easy to verify whether operations did indeed continue to run normally yesterday, or whether tankers were unable to leave the refinery.

3. Other news services have 500 protestors, and you claim there were 400. Since your reporters were clearly not at the scene (or they would be aware of the decision taken by activists to disperse before dark), where did your figure of 400 protestors come from?

4. The title of your story suggests that you regard the most noteworthy aspect of the day to be the fact that the protesters dispersed. Why do you emphasise this, since all protests end with dispersal, of some sort?

EK

• 1. An earlier version of the BBC story (still) tells us that:

  'Hundreds of climate campaigners who gathered outside an oil refinery in Essex have been dispersed by police.'

  Question: Is that true?

  (No, as the later version records)