The BBC apologized for equating Rafik Hariri and Imad Mughniyeh as “great national leaders.” The Jerusalem Post explains:
The BBC took the unusual step after Don Mell, The Associated Press’s former photographer in Beirut, lambasted the parallel, drawn by BBC correspondent Humphrey Hawkesley in a BBC World report last Thursday, as “an outrage” and “beyond belief.”
American journalist Mell was held up at gunpoint by Mughniyeh’s men as his colleague Terry Anderson, AP’s chief Middle East correspondent, was kidnapped in Beirut in March 1985 . . . .
Contacted by the Post, the BBC issued a statement Friday acknowledging that “the scripting of this phrase was imprecise” and apologizing to anyone who was offended by the item.
Hawkesley (pictured) made the comments near the end of this video.
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