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Last update - 08:45 16/04/2009
BBC panel finds broadcaster breached guidelines on Israel
By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: BBC, Israel News, Media Bias

In reporting about Israel, BBC's Middle East Editor has breached the corporation's guideline on accuracy and impartiality, an internal BBC complaints panel on Wednesday stated.

The Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland said that the findings show that the BBC has an anti-Israel "bias" and that the position of the editor, Jeremy Bowen, is "untenable." The corporation rejected these claims.
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"The findings are extremely serious," Jonathan Hoffman, the Federation's co-vice chair, told Haaretz. "They demand urgent and visible action by the BBC to restore public confidence. The BBC should start by publishing the Balen Report, which it has spent five years and a reported £200,000 trying to keep under wraps."

The Balen Report from 2004 is an internal BBC document about alleged anti-Israel bias which the BBC, a public service based body and the world's largest broadcasting corporation - has been requested but refused to release.

The findings of the complaints committee released on Wednesday dealt with two articles: A written item entitled "How 1967 defined the Middle East" published in 2007, and a radio show called "From Our Own Correspondent" aired on BBC Radio 4 last year. The panel reviewed the items following complaints by a member of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.

In its review, the Trust Editorial Standards Committee panel found that the 1967 article breaches the guideline on accuracy in saying that Israel's settlements are "in defiance of everyone's interpretation of international law except its own," and in referring to Zionism's "innate instinct to push out the frontier".

In reviewing the complaint by Jonathan Turner from the Zionist Federation, the committee also found that a statement in the radio show saying that the Har Homa settlement was considered illegal by the United States, breached the BBC's guideline on accuracy. A BBC spokesperson told Haaretz that Bowen "had been informed that that was the American view by an authoritative source."

The committee also found fault in the use of the phrase "unfinished business" in the written article, which reads: "The Israeli generals, hugely self-confident, mainly sabras (native-born Israeli Jews) in their late 30s and early 40s, had been training to finish the unfinished business of Israel's independence war of 1948 for most of their careers."

While defining some of the findings in the panel's 72-page report as "particularly significant," the Zionist Federation complained that the document fails to offer correctional steps and that the committee's performance was lackadaisical in processing complaints.

"Even now the BBC Trust has not recommended any remedial action in the light of its findings, despite the fact that Mr. Bowen's article has been advertised for months on the main Middle East News Page," the Federation wrote in a statement.

"The BBC Trust took an inordinate length of time to address these complaints, which were filed in June 2007 and January 2008" the statement also said. "These delays have allowed Bowen and his colleagues to continue their biased coverage of Israel."

The Federation added it believed this has been "a significant contributor" to a recent rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the U.K. The Federation has called on the government to "bring the BBC under full regulation, like all other broadcasting media."

A BBC spokesperson reacted to this in saying: "We completely refute the assertion made by the Federation's that we have 'biased coverage of Israel' - this is a single, partially-upheld finding related to one piece of output about events that took place over forty years ago and our Middle East Editor was simply exercising his professional judgment on history."

The spokesperson referred to the Thomas Report from April 2006 on the matter, which said: "Apart from individual lapses, there was little to suggest deliberate or systematic [BBC] bias."
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  1.   Here in the U.S., the bias is blatant 15:34  |  Bitin Dawg 15/04/09
  2.   Brits saddled with the worst media on the free world 15:45  |  William K. 15/04/09
  3.   No US bias 16:16  |  Arthur 15/04/09
  4.   BOWEN IN LONG LINE OF BBC DISTORTERS OF FACT AND TRUTH 16:59  |  v hardman 15/04/09
  5.   Bitin Dawg - good to know some of the US media gets it straight 16:59  |  michelle 15/04/09
  6.   Just imagine 18:04  |  Arie 15/04/09
  7.   Bias is a strange thing 18:08  |  Manny 15/04/09
  8.   Journalists are obligated to not show bias 18:25  |  Lynn 15/04/09
  9.   Arthur 18:32  |  james phillips 15/04/09
  10.   Keep it up Jeremy 21:25  |  Adam 15/04/09
  11.   People who complain about Bias 21:26  |  Chris Linthwaite 15/04/09
  12.   Michelle #4 21:30  |  Nigel 15/04/09
  13.   In Xamining the contents of this article, 21:30  |  Bernard de St Cyr 15/04/09
  14.   BBC & Linthwaite #10 22:28  |  passerby 15/04/09
  15.   #3 VHardmanpaulharris. Anything contrary to Israel hasbara... 22:45  |  Maureen Ann 15/04/09
  16.   # 10 you´re a real ignorant jerk 23:19  |  Mongo 15/04/09
  17.   BBC so biased PBS dropped them 23:53  |  consorts 15/04/09
  18.   The media here is both biased and ignorant 00:19  |  RfaelMoshe 16/04/09
  19.   #13 Passerby 00:22  |  Chris Linthwaite 16/04/09
  20.   Absolutely right! 00:28  |  Koos 16/04/09
  21.   Lithwaite-- talk about yourself 00:28  |  Rabid Jew 16/04/09
  22.   You can read the original article here 00:33  |  Chris Linthwaite 16/04/09
  23.   The Brits 01:05  |  Ronald 16/04/09
  24.   the bbc reprsents the euro point of view. these are the same 01:29  |  Shocked 16/04/09
  25.   Is he biased? 02:15  |  Neil 16/04/09
  26.   Long Overdue Report and short on action 02:21  |  Dean Blake 16/04/09
  27.   Remember Peter Dobbie,during Gaza? 02:44  |  Shelley 16/04/09
  28.   I`d like to see that, Bitin Dawg 03:37  |  utagawa 16/04/09
  29.   still around and kicking 04:50  |  Capt Ahab 16/04/09
  30.   You will never see that, Utagawa 05:08  |  Jasper 16/04/09
  31.   #14ReBBC and PBS 06:34  |  Victor 16/04/09
  32.   USA media 06:52  |  Richard Gant 16/04/09
  33.   USA media 06:56  |  Richard Gant 16/04/09
  34.   #10 Chris Lintwat 10:16  |  Joe W 16/04/09
  35.   #18 Linthwaite 10:29  |  Joe W 16/04/09
  36.   re "The Brits" 10:33  |  Sean 16/04/09
  37.   Biased censorship from Haaretz. 10:42  |  Michael 16/04/09
  38.   To Neil #24 - Is the BBC Biased? 10:49  |  Noami 16/04/09
  39.   Haaretz is much more critical of Israel than Bowen. 11:00  |  Michael 16/04/09
  40.   #32 USA media. 11:11  |  fluffy 16/04/09
  41.   #16 Mongo of Paris 11:14  |  Chris Linthwaite 16/04/09
  42.   bbc antisemitism 14:31  |  Susan 16/04/09
  43.   In response to 38 Naomi 14:33  |  Neil 16/04/09
  44.   why have so much fear its all food for thought 14:59  |  mehmet 16/04/09
  45.   Linthwaite: You are wrong-on so many points 15:00  |  Christopher 16/04/09
  46.   To all you BBC haters, remember this 15:30  |  C 16/04/09
  47.   Susan, read the article itself 15:39  |  Rod 16/04/09
  48.   This is all catering to the sick Zionist apologists 16:27  |  Dutch 16/04/09
  49.   BBC 1-0 Hasbara UK branch 16:27  |  Roo 16/04/09
  50.   Oh what a surprise, not 16:35  |  Nicole 16/04/09
  51.   To #41 Chris Linthwaite 16:47  |  Ariel 16/04/09
  52.   Typical hasbara attack 16:58  |  stevieb 16/04/09
  53.   BBC 1-0 Hasbara UK branch 17:02  |  Roo 16/04/09
  54.   Ariel, It`s too bad you are offended by the BBC 17:21  |  Dutch 16/04/09
  55.   #46 Ariel 17:49  |  Chris Linthwaite 16/04/09
  56.   to utagawa 17:53  |  hafeez 16/04/09
  57.   #48 Dutch 17:56  |  Joe W 16/04/09
  58.   C BBC judged itself to be impartial but it wasn`t 18:12  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 16/04/09
  59.   Dutch, what makes you think you`re so unique? 18:17  |  AmericanJoe 16/04/09
  60.   # 13 NOT occupied territories 18:27  |  Lynn 16/04/09
  61.   #42 Susan ....like sying all blacks are naturally 18:34  |  Lynn 16/04/09
  62.   Perceived BBC Bias 18:34  |  David 16/04/09
  63.   World Media Inaccurate Due To Threat From Two Dozen Sharia States 18:36  |  UsedToPostHere 16/04/09
  64.   re:Dutch 18:39  |  UsedToPostHere 16/04/09
  65.   Michelle 19:11  |  Angela 16/04/09
  66.   This has got to be a joke--BBC breached guidelines on Israel 19:26  |  DUtch 16/04/09
  67.   The latest British loss - decent media. Getting ready to sharia. 19:50  |  17 16/04/09
  68.   Hard to believe. English gentlemen doing this to Jews? 20:17  |  Israeli citizen 16/04/09
  69.   Arthur - no US bias 20:36  |  Canadian 16/04/09
  70.   dutch 20:36  |  ehud 16/04/09
  71.   the metods 20:53  |  udi 16/04/09
  72.   BBC biased? oh well... not like Israeli media is it now? 20:55  |  Welshman 16/04/09
  73.   Lynn #49 Queen of `bias` 22:00  |  Roo 16/04/09
  74.   HAhahaha Ronald 22:39  |  Brian 16/04/09
  75.   roo bowen is an outrageous foe of israel 22:46  |  amnon rubinstein 16/04/09
  76.   bias by any other name 22:46  |  rickibobbi 16/04/09
  77.   What happened to the BBC 22:47  |  Bassim 16/04/09
  78.   to Roo#47 23:04  |  Ilya 16/04/09
  79.   Biased "trust" 23:35  |  stonebird 16/04/09
  80.   # 61 Roo...UN documents call it disputed territories 00:08  |  Lynn 17/04/09
  81.   Dutch....what is the real problem? 00:32  |  Lynn 17/04/09
  82.   "apart from individual lapses"-once those lapses are meaningful 00:39  |  Susanna/Shoshana 17/04/09
  83.   Did anyone read the report by the BBC`s internal committee? 00:46  |  Alan S. 17/04/09
  84.   BBC The last bastion of free media 01:15  |  sam 17/04/09
  85.   what? 01:18  |  sean 17/04/09
  86.   Ridicolous 01:39  |  Terry 17/04/09
  87.   "The idea that Israeli generals have "unfinished business" from t 01:45  |  Roo 17/04/09
  88.   Consorts - PBS 02:02  |  Stephen Connor 17/04/09
  89.   a law unto themselfs 02:02  |  margaret anne bailey 17/04/09
  90.   Lynn #63 What a hopeless post that was? 02:04  |  Roo 17/04/09
  91.   Susan of Philadelphia #42 and Gen.Rabin on *unfinished business* 02:05  |  Roo 17/04/09
  92.   UTAGAWA - willful blindness on the World Trade Center 02:09  |  Stephen Connor 17/04/09
  93.   What is this? 02:16  |  Peter 17/04/09
  94.   Richard Grant on the Bias of NPR 02:26  |  Stephen Connor 17/04/09
  95.   Angela Re: Michelle 02:30  |  Stephen Connor 17/04/09
  96.   Lynn - Free flow of trade throughout Gaza 02:34  |  Stephen Connor 17/04/09
  97.   Let`s get real 02:37  |  Rod 17/04/09
  98.   Maureen Ann-#15-Hasbara is needed to counter anti Israel bias 03:33  |  Daniel Leopold 17/04/09
  99.   let`s get real everyone (take 2) 03:57  |  Rod 17/04/09
  100.   Reply to #2 Brit media 06:33  |  Sherlock Holmes 17/04/09
  101.   Reply to #4 Bowen 06:37  |  Joseph 17/04/09
  102.   BBC and Haaretz 06:40  |  Motic 17/04/09
  103.   BBC WHAT? 08:55  |  indrajaya 17/04/09
  104.   BBC has spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers money trying to 09:09  |  PETER SM 17/04/09
  105.   #81 Hi Daniel Leopold. 09:14  |  Maureen Ann 17/04/09
  106.   ROD GET real Barbara Plett cant weep when Arafats helicopter took 09:15  |  PETER SM 17/04/09
  107.   MAUREEN name calling means you have no argument. 09:16  |  PETER SM 17/04/09
  108.   S.CONNOR Arabs accusing Israel of 9/11 is blame shifting NOT 09:24  |  PETER SM 17/04/09
  109.   PETER SM BBC is not biased 11:18  |  examiner 17/04/09
  110.   EXAMINER instead of rehetoric try replying to points made 13:59  |  PETER SM 17/04/09
  111.   PETER SM `me` stick to the points? 15:44  |  examiner 17/04/09
  112.   PETER SM : you might have considered 16:10  |  stevieb 17/04/09
  113.   PETER SM `me` stick to the points? 16:54  |  examiner 17/04/09
  114.   the inherent problem of "crying wolf" (3rd try) 23:31  |  eric 17/04/09
  115.   The BBC has traded impartiality just as Britain and holland have 00:56  |  ks 18/04/09
  116.   British Bullshit Corp. 14:15  |  petra 21/04/09
  117.   BBC Bias 21:47  |  sam 22/04/09
  118.   journalism 00:50  |  captain grumpy 05/10/09
  119.   palestinian side 01:05  |  captain grumpy 05/10/09
  120.   media bias 01:09  |  captain grumpy 05/10/09
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