The independent report into the BBC’s Israeli-Palestinian coverage continues to provoke reactions, including the opinions of Michael Gove and Mark Dooley writing in Prospect magazine:
Any truly objective assessment of the BBC could never conclude that its coverage of the middle east conflict is “fair, accurate and impartial,” let alone that it is biased in favour of Israel. Take, for example, the BBC’s coverage of the late Yasser Arafat. In one profile broadcast in 2002, he was lauded as an “icon” and a “hero,” but no mention was made of his terror squads, corruption, or his brutal suppression of dissident Palestinians. Similarly, when Israel assassinated the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in 2004, one BBC reporter described him as “polite, charming and witty, a deeply religious man.” This despite the fact that under Yassin’s guidance, Hamas murdered hundreds. And what of Orla Guerin’s editorialising? On one occasion, she accused Israel of cynically manipulating “a Palestinian youngster for propaganda purposes.” The “youngster” was a child suicide bomber.
Read the entire article here.
