Report slams BBC

From Jerusalem Post, May. 8, 2006 23:39, by GEORGE CONGER, LONDON:

Jewish leaders and anti-bias campaigners have applauded an independent panel's findings that have validated complaints that BBC coverage of the Middle East is flawed and unbalanced.

...According to the 38-page report ... the BBC's Middle East reporting did 'not consistently constitute a full and fair account of the conflict but rather, in important respects, presents an incomplete and in that sense misleading picture.' While no evidence of 'systematic or deliberate bias' was found, 'gaps in coverage, analysis, context and perspective' have led to a failure to 'maintain consistently the BBC's own established editorial standards' of impartial reporting, the [BBCWatch] panel found.

...In response to increasing complaints, the BBC appointed a Middle East ombudsman, Malcolm Balen, to review its work and submit recommendations for reform, which the independent panel said had been implemented over the past few years. "Only after it had taken these steps did the BBC appoint the impartial panel, with strict instructions for it only to consider the last six months of broadcasts ... What the BBC has done is [to do] everything it can to solve the problem and then say 'Now we have a cleaned up, better BBC, now you can look at us and judge us,'" ...

It was this "cleaned up" BBC that was castigated by the panel for not "having methods in place for doing their job properly and being impartial" and not having a "complaints procedure that works," ....

Jon Benjamin, chief executive officer for the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told the Post .... "Many observers of BBC coverage will be surprised at the report's finding that the situation of the Palestinians is not adequately explained," he said, as "almost without exception, Palestinians are shown as suffering from 'the occupation.'" "Whilst this is perhaps a reflection of the situation for many, what is not shown is the fact that others live more affluently due to corruption and abuse of power," he said.

Dr. Irene Lancaster of the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester ... said ....
The "prestigious Reith Lectures, currently running on [BBC] Radio 4 is a typical example of the BBC using Jews, both running the show and featuring Jews, in this case Daniel Barenboim, the conductor, in order to demonize Israel and thus the Jewish people by ridiculously adulating Muslim culture, in this case that of the Palestinians," ....

The chairman of the BBC's Board of Governors, Michael Grade, said BBC management would "consider the panel's recommendations and respond to us at our June board meeting."
Much of its coverage of Israel and the Middle East remains biased and objectionable, according to Jewish leaders.

A story by the broadcaster's Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, on the Palestinian Authority's funding crisis stated, "Without foreign donations the PA cannot do the most basic things, like pay its staff, let alone address the desperate economic and social problems faced in the territories, many of which have been caused by nearly 40 years of military occupation by Israel." The BBC mentioned no other cause for the PA's economic and social problems other than military occupation by Israel.