by Eli Leon, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Lord Michael Ian Grade, who headed the network from 2004 to 2006, says BBC shirked duty by not reporting on the ongoing Palestinian incitement, which "has played an undeniable part in stoking tension recently and is an important part of the story."
The BBC has come under
attack for its coverage of the terrorist attacks in Israel
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Photo credit: AP  |
Former BBC chairman Lord Michael Ian Grade
lambasted the network last week, saying its coverage of the recent
terrorist attacks in Israel has been plagued with bias.
Grade wrote to the corporation's director of
news and current affairs, James Harding. He specifically faulted
correspondent Orla Guerin, saying her reporting from the region failed
to report on the "wider context" of the recent attacks and suggested an
"equivalence between Israeli victims of terrorism and Palestinians who
have been killed by Israeli security forces in the act of carrying out
terror attacks." His letter was first reported by the Conservatives
Friends of Israel, a British advocacy group that is aligned with the
Conservative Party and "works to promote its twin aims of supporting
Israel and promoting Conservatism in the U.K."
"An emotional interview is conducted with the
father of a dead Palestinian youth who had been killed committing a
fatal terror attack. However, the report failed to show the emotional
distress caused to Israelis by any of these recent attacks. This is
inexcusable," Grade wrote.
"Additionally, it was improper of the
correspondent to claim that 'there's no sign of involvement by militant
groups,' before immediately showing footage of Palestinian Islamic Jihad
banners at the home of a 19-year-old terrorist who carried out a deadly
knife attack at Lions' Gate in Jerusalem on Oct. 3. PIJ is a well-known
Palestinian terror organization and it has since claimed responsibility
for the attack and been praised by Hamas, another internationally
proscribed terror organization. This directly misleads viewers."
He further said that Guerin chose not to show
Palestinian rock throwers. This, and her decision to ignore the big
picture, hurt viewers by "limiting their awareness and understanding of
what is an undoubtedly complex issue."
"The carefully selected footage failed to show
the stone-throwing protesters prompting the presence and action of
Israeli security forces. While this footage is entirely worthy of
broadcast, I strongly feel that viewers lacked visual and oral
description of the wider context," he wrote.
Grade, who headed the network's governing body
from 2004 to 2006, said the BBC shirked its duty to viewers by not
reporting on the ongoing Palestinian incitement, which "has played an
undeniable part in stoking tension recently and is an important part of
the story."
"Regrettably, this is not the first time the
standard of reporting and impartiality has been unsatisfactory in recent
weeks," he wrote. "On Saturday, 3rd October, I was disappointed to see
the BBC News website publish a misleading and counter-factual headline:
'Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attacks kills two.' I note
reports that this headline underwent four revisions following public
criticism."
On Monday, MSNBC apologized
for a segment it aired Thursday in which Middle East correspondent
Martin Fletcher used inaccurate maps to describe the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. The maps suggested there was a Palestinian state before
Israel's founding 67 years ago, whereas in fact, in 1948 "Palestine" was
only an administrative region under British rule.
"Last Thursday, in an attempt to talk about
the context for the current turmoil in the Middle East we showed a
series of maps of the changing geography in that region. We realized
after we went off the air the maps were not factually accurate and we
regret using them," broadcaster Kate Snow said.
Fletcher also apologized on air.
"The bottom line is it was completely wrong. I mean,
there was no Palestinian -- there was no state called Palestine," he
said. "In 1946, it was a British mandate land. Britain was given control
of the area by the League of Nations."
Eli Leon, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=29057
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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