In July, HonestReporting asked readers to take action following an interview on BBC World Service with then Israeli Minister of Science, Technology and Space, Danny Danon.
Referring to the announcement of an Iranian nuclear deal, Danon stated that Israel was “keeping all options on the table.” The presenter, Razia Iqbal, asked Danon to explain. Her reaction was both shocking and disturbing:
But you’re not under threat by Iran. Nobody in Iran has threatened you for a very long time. You’re harking back to a time when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened Israel directly.
We provided plenty of evidence of Iranian threats against Israel to demonstrate just how ignorant the interview was and encouraged readers to sign our petition on this issue.
Finally, the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit has ruled on the issue and the outcome is favorable:
Outcome
Although the question was intended only to draw out the interviewee’s views on the nature of the threats faced by Israel, its phrasing gave the impression of stating an uncontested fact. The statements from Iranian sources cited by the complainant sufficed to call the matter into question.
Upheld
Further action
The Editor has discussed the finding with the presenter and team, and emphasised the need for care in framing questions clearly.
While this may be only a drop in the bucket when it comes to the BBC, it is nonetheless a welcome result. We thank all of our readers who took the time to file complaints and over 13,000 people who signed our petition.
Featured image: CC BY-SA HonestReporting.com and freestock.ca
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9 Comments
“The Editor has discussed the finding with the presenter and team, and emphasised the need for care in framing questions clearly” apologies and corrections are fine and dandy but its time people start loosing their jobs if they are not telling the truth.
The BBC’s language is as elastic as their integrity.
Well it’s great to read the opinions of all you Yanks, what with your current White House Team, New York Times, Forward (subsidiary of Haaretz), Lib-Dem-Reform coalition, etc. the BBC is a beacon of light by comparison and does try to play by the rules and makes the right decision when properly challenged, which is something the forementioned would never do. Remember don’t moan and complain, engage with intelligence and politeness and you will be surprised where it may end.
Most of the problems with the BBC is because the interviewer was following the policy set out by the BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen, who has a record of being Anti Zionist/Anti Semitic.
When was Ahmadinejad president of Iran?….a VERY LONG TIME AGO?……this stupid interviewer thinks that the threats made by this lunatic were a personal hate for Israel and not an oficial desire to destroy Israel!!!
Muslims don’t like reporters who tell the truth & Muslims hold the whip hand in Great Britain!
The only threat Iran poses is to US-Israeli hegemony, as both country have as much to fear from Tehran’s “Death to America and Israel” chants as CBC critics of Israel do from the equally unpleasant epithets regularly hurled their way.
(South African activists calling for the end of apartheid and Soviet reformers demanding the death of communism were not advocating the physical “destruction” of their countries – except to Pretoria supremacists and Moscow commissars.)
PS
Like the magician who has his audience concentrate on one hand while his other does the trick, Israel wants the focus on Iran’s alleged nuclear threat while it busily creates “facts on the ground” (illegal West Bank settlements) that abort the birth of a viable Palestinian state (as promised in Likud’s election platform).
Trouble is, the audience sees through the charade.
I hope that Iran’s treatment of Israel as an enemy and equating the nation with intolerence and calling for its anihilation will be reported around the world. Perhaps then change can occur and Iran be pushed towards peace.