CONCERNS have been raised over the BBC running "the world's largest co-ordinated anti vaccination campaign" centered around Novak Djokovic.

Freelance consultant Dan Barker, whose website lists years of experience working in areas of ecommerce, digital marketing, analytics and customer research, took to Twitter on Tuesday to say: "The BBC has now run a day-long anti vaccination campaign.

"Possibly the most-viewed co-ordinated anti vaccination campaign in the world so far. It centred around Novak Djokovic."

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Barker's thread goes on to explain how the "campaign" worked. First, Barker explained, the BBC did an "exclusive interview" with the 33-year-old Serbian, who is currently ranked as the world's number one male tennis player.

He is, as Barker said, "the only man in the top 100 who has not taken a Covid vaccine". 

He continued: "Everyone who pays attention to tennis knows his stance, but he quickly falls out of the news outside of major tournaments."

Then, Barker explained, "they filled their flagship morning news program [sic] – which they believe sets the news agenda for the day – with ads for their interviews, running snippets from it continuously".

"Other outlets copied the story, and it has trended all day on Twitter as a result," Barker adds, alongside screenshots of similar stories on the Daily Mail, Sky Sports, and Express. 

Headlines include "Djokovic reveals he will MISS the French Open and Wimbledon if he requires a Covid vaccine" from the Daily Mail, and "Djokovic says he is prepared to miss Wimbledon & French Open in order to avoid Coronavirus vaccine".

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"Simultaneously," Barker said, "they ran the story as the main article on the biggest news website in the world", and didn't simply run it as a regular article, "but also adding several secondary articles, and a timeline of updates on a non-breaking news story".

Barker added that by running it in the manner of a world news story, and not a sport story, this displaced other headlines like the Ukraine/Russia update, with the top spot on BBC news being literally priceless due to the huge number of people who see it, especially first thing in the morning.

He also noted that despite the heavy coverage, the story didn't remain at the top for long, dropping down to the third most read article on the BBC news website very quickly.

"In other words," Barker said, "this was not a naturally 'massive' story – it was prompted to be read".

The National:

Barker then went on to explain that staff put out posts on social media, running as more promo for the interview, which was led by Amol Rajan (above), who Barker claimed "is being pushed as a sort of next Piers Morgan – an editor/celeb interviewer who ideally becomes a celeb themselves".

Barker explained, "If you've ever done much campaign marketing, you will know that trying to establish an idea requires a few things: 1) A message 2) Proof points to make that message convincing 3) Distribution, to create awareness 4) Reinforcement".

He said that the BBC's "co-ordinated campaign contains all 4".

Barker pointed out that he is not trying to say that the BBC intended to run an anti-vax campaign, or that it will gain any ground, but that, in effect, is what it has done. 

He also added that Djokovic is the perfect candidate to front this type of message, as he is "living proof" that you can catch Covid without the vaccine and remain healthy: "He does not represent the masses, he is way beyond the norm, but he is the perfect person to point to and say 'well he isn't vaccinated'.

"The main negative consequence he has suffered cannot apply to anyone else, and the BBC paints his stance as 'determination'."

The BBC responded: "The BBC’s exclusive interview is the first time Novak Djokovic has spoken about his position himself, following significant interest in his story from audiences around the globe.

"This is a story which encompasses key issues such as mandatory vaccination and international travel restrictions. The BBC has always made clear the scientific and medical consensus on vaccination and its effectiveness and we have done so throughout our coverage of this story.

"There are still many people who choose not to be vaccinated and we think it is important to hear from all sides of the discussion.”