BBC bias complaint upheld

[barb162]

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1651260,00.html

Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Saturday November 26, 2005
The Guardian


BBC governors yesterday upheld a complaint of bias against Radio 4 reporter Barbara Plett for a description of her tearful response to dying Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's final departure from the West Bank. The corporation's head of editorial complaints originally cleared the controversial edition of From Our Own Correspondent of breaching BBC impartiality guidelines, but the governors' programme complaints committee yesterday overturned the decision.
During the programme, broadcast in October last year, Plett described covering Arafat's illness and airlift by helicopter from his home in Ramallah to a French hospital as "a real grind". She added: "Yet when the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose from his ruined compound, I started to cry ... without warning".

The programme prompted hundreds of complaints from those who said the BBC should not broadcast the personal opinions of its correspondents on controversial matters and fuelled claims from some that the BBC was pro-Palestine.

The complaint considered by the committee claimed this "tearful eulogy" would not be matched by a BBC report extolling Ariel Sharon. Despite initially issuing a statement in support of Plett, the BBC director of news Helen Boaden later apologised for what she described as "an editorial misjudgment".

snip

[tsuki]

1. Bias on the part of the BBC? They should watch the Rupert/Saudi Network.

[tx_dem41]

2. Rupert Murdoch's network isn't run under a charter with the British

Government, so they aren't subject to the same review as the BBC.

[tsuki]

3. I was being sarcastic.

[prescole]

4. Whatever else he was, Arafat was a terrorist. Good riddance in

my book.
BBC does a really good job of toeing the line, though you can't please all the people all the time.
Murdoch does more than degrade journalism wherever he goes--he degrades culture (though I do love some of Fox's worst crapola. Color me hypocrite, I'm afraid.)

[Englander]

5. The complainers got this part right-

--The complaint considered by the committee claimed this "tearful eulogy" would not be matched by a BBC report extolling Ariel Sharon.--

There'll be no tears at Jabba's departure.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/graphic/0,5543,435245,00.html

[Englander]

6. Plett's report from the BBC;

*Caution, contains empathy*

'Yasser Arafat's unrelenting journey

Saturday, 30 October, 2004

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3966139.stm

[barb162]

7. Too bad Plett couldn't work up some tears over his corruption

that showed up in many stories over the years in the BBC

bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3483777.stm

Thursday, 12 February, 2004, 20:07 GMT
snip

Prosecutors say the investigation is at a preliminary stage.
A recent French press report revealed a probe into alleged multi-million dollar transfers to her bank accounts.


snip

It was launched by the Paris public prosecutor last October after the Bank of France reported that nearly $1.27m was being transferred on a regular basis from Switzerland to Mrs Arafat's accounts in Paris.

Officials said the alleged transfers were also confirmed by a government anti-money laundering body.

The prosecutor's office said it was checking transfers made between July 2002 and July 2003 into Mrs Arafat's accounts at Arab Bank and French bank BNP.

[Englander]

8. Support for Barbara Platt (sic).

Letters
Balanced reporting and the Middle East conflict

Monday November 28, 2005
The Guardian

The decision to maintain the disciplinary proceedures against Barbara Platt and even to go as far as to establish a commission of inquiry into the way the BBC covers the Palestine question (BBC bias complaint upheld, November 26) is one of many manifestations of the grotesque phase we have all reached in this troublsome part of the world.

Had it not been for Ms Platt's balanced and informative reports, it would have been difficult to distinguish between the BBC coverage of the occupied territories and that of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority. Ms Platt admirably tried for many months to "balance" a simple imbalanced reality: of Israeli occupation and Palestinian victimisation. The atrocities on the ground - the killing of children and women and the blowing up of houses - warranted an emotional response as it is, and it was only natural that once, and only once, this would show in her reports (as many BBC reporters allowed themselves a show of emotion when reporting the deaths of George Best or Princess Diana). Only outside pressure could have produced such an ill-thought procedure and action.

Article continues
As for the inquiry commission, one can save taxpayers' money. The cable companies in Israel come now and then under official pressure for allowing free access to international TV news stations. They would like to remove CNN and al-Jazeera. There are no complaints in Israel about Fox news (representing the US neoconservative point of view) and the BBC. The BBC is indeed a pro-Israeli news agency and is going to remain so if its directors silence the professional reporting of Barabara Platt.

Ilan Pappe
Tivon, Israel

http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,1652067,00.html