Final Battle to Release the BBC’s Balen Report
November 24, 2011 15:43 by Pesach Benson
This just in from the Jewish Chronicle:
What is likely to be the final battle in a six-year campaign to force the BBC to release a report into its Middle East coverage began at the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
London solicitor Steven Sugar first sought the publication of the Balen Report early in 2005 under the newly introduced Freedom of Information Act.
But although he died early this year, his widow, Fiona Paveley, was granted permission to continue the fight in his name . . .
This week’s case was due to have come before the Supreme Court in February but was postponed because of Mr Sugar’s death the previous month.
The Balen report was a BBC-commissioned assessment of its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Written in 2004 by Malcolm Balen, the Beeb has spent at least £250,000 in license-fee money on legal fees trying to cover up the report.
HonestReporting’s FOI request for the report was also turned down.
Entscheidungsschlacht um Veröffentlichung des Balen-Reports der BBC « Medien BackSpin
6:20 pm
Nov 25, 2011
[...] HonestReporting Media BackSpin, 25. November 2011 [...]
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steve mann
1:32 pm
Nov 26, 2011
If ever I wanted a quest to be full filled its this one- I live in the UK and pay £146 for the “Privilege” of being able to view television-
I have had to suffer the utter bias of the BBC from the day that an audience from a Dimbleby programme brought the American ambassador to tears after the 9/11 atrocity- Where the audience were mainly Muslims (Well chosen by the BBC) and they more or less berated the ambassador by screaming at him (No exaggeration) that the USA was asking for it due to their foreign policy. Obviously referring to the M.E.
Then of course there is there star M.E reporter Jeremy Bowen-
past reporter Emma Hurd- the tearful Ms Pleashet- crying at Arafats demise.
Whatever the outcome- if it fails we must keep chasing the BBC to publish-
If its successful then we have to spread it around the world.
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David Guy
12:34 am
Nov 27, 2011
At the back of my mind is always the thought that the Balen Report will be nothing more than a whitewash by a BBC hack. That the expense and effort was as much to protect the BBC from any general investigation of their activities as news gatherers and disseminators as it was to hide their propaganda efforts on behalf of the Palestinians.
They are scared that once the Balen Report is released it will open the floodgates into investigation of their activism for Global Warming scaremongering; in favour of Islam and against Christianity; in favour of the Labour Party and against the Conservatives; in favour of the Democrats and Barak Obama and against the Republicans; in favour of multiculturalism and against British especially English distinction; in favour of socialism and against capitalism and most importantly investigation into their unique business system.
As much as I am in favour of release of the Balen Report already almost eight years old, the BBC will be able to spin their way out of it. It will be necessary to commission a new report about how things have changed since the original was written and hidden.
The greatest thing the Supreme Court could do would be to define the limits of the FOI Act. “Information held by the BBC is subject to the Freedom of Information Act only if it is ‘held for purposes other than those of journalism, art or literature’. The BBC should not be able to run over journalist ethics and good practise without allowing the public to challenge it.
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David Guy
12:43 pm
Nov 27, 2011
Lord Phillips will be one of the judges. This doesn’t seem a positive development. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1031611/Sharia-law-SHOULD-used-Britain-says-UKs-judge.html
Case Details
http://www.supremecourt.gov.uk/current-cases/CCCaseDetails/case_2010_0145.html
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