Monday, October 16, 2006
BBC mounts court fight to keep 'critical' report secret
The corporation is mounting a landmark High Court action to prevent the release of The Balen Report under the Freedom of Information Act, despite the fact that BBC reporters often use the Act to pursue their journalism.
The action will increase suspicions that the report, which is believed to run to 20,000 words, includes evidence of anti-Israeli bias in news programming.
The court case will have far reaching implications for the future working of the Act and the BBC. If the corporation loses, it will have to release thousands of pages of other documents that have been held back.
Like all public bodies, the BBC is obliged to release information about itself under the Act. However, along with Channel 4, Britain's other public service broadcaster, it is allowed to hold back material that deals with the production of its art, entertainment and journalism.
The High Court action is the latest stage of a lengthy and expensive battle by Steven Sugar, a lawyer, to get access to the document, which was compiled by Malcolm Balen, a senior editorial adviser, in 2004...
Honest Reporting UK has a report up on this, as well as information on the BBC's "terminology guide," here: BBC: Something to Hide? The BBC fights to prevent access to the Balen Report.
There's no need to wonder what's in this report. There is a much more recent report into the BBCs coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict - "Report of the Independent Panel for the BBC Governors on Impartiality of BBC Coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" (April 2006).
This was one of the key findings, that of the BBCs "failure to convey adequately the disparity in the Israeli and Palestinian experience, reflecting the fact that one side is in control and the other lives under occupation".
Yes, it could very well be that they are hiding the fact that they wasted a lot of money on reports that come out with obviously hair-brained conclusions. I've a feeling we'll find out.
Yep. A two year old report is worth chasing around after in the hope that it contains "evidence of anti-Israeli bias".
Yet, an independent report released just a few months ago is a waste for our fearless truth hunters.
Why? - because it doesn't meet preconceived expectations. Worse, it finds the BBCs main fault is that it "misrepresents" the conflict by not adequetly reflecting the suffering caused by the Israeli occupation.
Israel right-or-wrong zealots are quite irrational when it comes to the BBC.
Irrational like here - http://israelforumwatch.blogspot.com/2006/06/spitting-on-bbc.html