The long-running efforts to force the BBC to publish the contents of the Balen Report appear to have come to a sorry end in the High Court. A judge has overturned an order that the report should be made public under Freedom of Information laws.
In 2004, Malcolm Balen exhaustively examined the BBC’s radio and TV coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His report was never released to the public; however, Stephen Sugar, a London lawyer, filed a request under FOI. When the BBC refused his request, Sugar appealed to the Information Tribunal, which adjudicates FOI disputes. The tribunal ruled in Sugar’s favour, leading to a flood of FOI requests for the Balen Report (including one from HonestReporting UK, which was also rebuffed).
However, as reported by the BBC:
Mr Justice Davis, sitting in the High Court, accepted the Corporation’s argument that the tribunal had no jurisdiction in a case where a public service broadcaster and the information commissioner agreed documents fell outside the scope of the act.
The judge described the position as “most odd” and “potentially inconvenient in its consequence”. There were, said Mr Justice Davis, “powerful reasons in favour of there being a right of appeal to the tribunal in circumstances such as the present”.
Commercial solicitor Mr Sugar, from Putney in south London, described the ruling as a “technical win” for the BBC. He added: “Perhaps the BBC Trust under its new chairman, will take a different view from BBC management and conclude it is in the public interest for Mr Balen’s report to be published.”
We also hope that the BBC, if it has nothing to hide as it claims, will see fit to publish the Balen Report and allow the licence fee paying public to decide on its contents for themselves.
BBC JOURNALISTS PROTEST NUJ BOYCOTT
We commend the 272 NUJ members who work for the BBC who have sent the following petition to the NUJ executive:
“As BBC journalists and NUJ members we are dismayed at the passing of a motion at ADM calling for a boycott of Israeli goods. As members of a corporation which prides itself on providing impartial news coverage, we cannot associate ourselves with a move which involves taking sides in any conflict. We call on the union to hold a ballot of all members to see whether they support the view taken at ADM on an issue which could have a profound effect on the way all British journalists are viewed at home and abroad.”
While an admirable sentiment by these BBC journalists, we do wonder why they are suddenly prepared to oppose “taking sides in any conflict”. After all, as noted in a previous HR UK communique, kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston is regarded by BBC colleagues, Palestininan journalists and politicians as being openly supportive of the Palestinians.
Not to mention other incidents such as Barbara Plett’s tears for Arafat and Fayad Abu Shamala, a BBC correspondent in Gaza, who declared at a Hamas rally on May 6, 2001: “Journalists and media organisations [are] waging the campaign shoulder-to-shoulder together with the Palestinian people.”
For more on the BBC petition and other resources focused on effectively countering the NUJ boycott and other anti-Israel boycotts, see the Engage website.
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