BBC rebuked Jeremy Bowen for Israel Comments
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ments.html
BBC rebukes its Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen for anti-Israel comments
By Paul Revoir
16th April 2009
'The BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen faced calls to quit tonight after he was criticised for breaching the broadcaster's rules on accuracy and impartiality in two reports about the Arab-Israeli conflict.
An inquiry found that a reference to 'Zionism's innate instinct to push out the frontier' in an article for the BBC's website breached guidelines.
In addition, a suggestion that Israel was 'in defiance of everyone's interpretation of international law except its own' was said to have been 'imprecise'.
A separate radio broadcast by Bowen also led to a complaint and was criticised by the trust.
The initial claims by Bowen were made in a website report entitled 'How 1967 Defined the Middle East'. It sparked two complaints.
Bowen's online article, published last year, put the present-day Israeli-Palestinian conflict in context by explaining the events of the 1967 Six Day War.
But the committee said he should have done more to make clear that there were other views on the matter.
Ruling that the article had breached the rules on impartiality, the committee said: 'Readers might come away from the article thinking that the interpretation offered was the only sensible view of the war.'
'It was not necessary for equal space to be given to the other arguments, but ... the existence of alternative theses should have been more clearly signposted.'
Bowen's radio report, for Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent, said the US government considered Har Homa, an Israeli settlement near Jerusalem, to be illegal.
This was based on information from an 'authoritative source', the committee said, but there was no evidence the view was official US policy.
BBC bosses have faced repeated claims that reporting of the Arab-Israeli conflict has been skewed towards the Palestinian cause.
One controversial incident involved Middle East correspondent Barbara Plett revealing that she had cried as Yasser Arafat neared death in 2004.
The BBC has also been criticised for spending tens of thousands of pounds in licence fee cash in a court battle to block publication of an internal report into its alleged bias in covering the region.
Then earlier this year it incensed pro-Palestinian supporters after it refused to show a Gaza charity appeal for fear of risking its impartiality.
Jonathan Turner, who made one of the complaints, said he was pleased with the committee's findings.
But he said Bowen should leave his job as Middle East editor and called on the BBC to publish a correction prominently on its website.
'If he cannot get this right, it's difficult to see what else he can get right in relation to Israel,' Mr Turner said.
'You cannot understand what's happening today unless you have a proper understanding of what happened in '67.
'Clearly he doesn't have a proper understanding, so for that reason I think his position is untenable.'
Mr Turner, a barrister from London, said pursuing the complaint in his spare time had been an 'enormous burden'.
He described speed of the complaints process as 'outrageous'.
He made his original complaint about both the Six Day War article - published in July 2007 - and the From Our Own Correspondent broadcast in January 2008.
In today's report, the BBC Trust apologised for the 'exceptionally long time' taken over the complaint.
No disciplinary action is expected against Bowen, but the web article will be revised and a link added to the editorial standards committee's findings.
A spokesman for BBC News said: 'This is a single partially upheld finding related to one piece of output about events that took place over forty years ago and our Middle East editor was simply exercising his professional judgment on history.
'Clearly there is no consensus view of history and it is self evident that there are others who have different analysis - which of course they are entitled to.'
The committee accepted that Bowen was using his professional judgment in the From Our Own Correspondent piece, the spokesman said, but should have sourced his comment.
'This has absolutely nothing to do with bias, and we of course note the findings,' the spokesman said.
'We would also point out that the committee accepted that the Middle East Editor had been informed that that was the American view by an authoritative source.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0R2ZlETKe
BBC rebukes its Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen for anti-Israel comments
By Paul Revoir
16th April 2009
'The BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen faced calls to quit tonight after he was criticised for breaching the broadcaster's rules on accuracy and impartiality in two reports about the Arab-Israeli conflict.
An inquiry found that a reference to 'Zionism's innate instinct to push out the frontier' in an article for the BBC's website breached guidelines.
In addition, a suggestion that Israel was 'in defiance of everyone's interpretation of international law except its own' was said to have been 'imprecise'.
A separate radio broadcast by Bowen also led to a complaint and was criticised by the trust.
The initial claims by Bowen were made in a website report entitled 'How 1967 Defined the Middle East'. It sparked two complaints.
Bowen's online article, published last year, put the present-day Israeli-Palestinian conflict in context by explaining the events of the 1967 Six Day War.
But the committee said he should have done more to make clear that there were other views on the matter.
Ruling that the article had breached the rules on impartiality, the committee said: 'Readers might come away from the article thinking that the interpretation offered was the only sensible view of the war.'
'It was not necessary for equal space to be given to the other arguments, but ... the existence of alternative theses should have been more clearly signposted.'
Bowen's radio report, for Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent, said the US government considered Har Homa, an Israeli settlement near Jerusalem, to be illegal.
This was based on information from an 'authoritative source', the committee said, but there was no evidence the view was official US policy.
BBC bosses have faced repeated claims that reporting of the Arab-Israeli conflict has been skewed towards the Palestinian cause.
One controversial incident involved Middle East correspondent Barbara Plett revealing that she had cried as Yasser Arafat neared death in 2004.
The BBC has also been criticised for spending tens of thousands of pounds in licence fee cash in a court battle to block publication of an internal report into its alleged bias in covering the region.
Then earlier this year it incensed pro-Palestinian supporters after it refused to show a Gaza charity appeal for fear of risking its impartiality.
Jonathan Turner, who made one of the complaints, said he was pleased with the committee's findings.
But he said Bowen should leave his job as Middle East editor and called on the BBC to publish a correction prominently on its website.
'If he cannot get this right, it's difficult to see what else he can get right in relation to Israel,' Mr Turner said.
'You cannot understand what's happening today unless you have a proper understanding of what happened in '67.
'Clearly he doesn't have a proper understanding, so for that reason I think his position is untenable.'
Mr Turner, a barrister from London, said pursuing the complaint in his spare time had been an 'enormous burden'.
He described speed of the complaints process as 'outrageous'.
He made his original complaint about both the Six Day War article - published in July 2007 - and the From Our Own Correspondent broadcast in January 2008.
In today's report, the BBC Trust apologised for the 'exceptionally long time' taken over the complaint.
No disciplinary action is expected against Bowen, but the web article will be revised and a link added to the editorial standards committee's findings.
A spokesman for BBC News said: 'This is a single partially upheld finding related to one piece of output about events that took place over forty years ago and our Middle East editor was simply exercising his professional judgment on history.
'Clearly there is no consensus view of history and it is self evident that there are others who have different analysis - which of course they are entitled to.'
The committee accepted that Bowen was using his professional judgment in the From Our Own Correspondent piece, the spokesman said, but should have sourced his comment.
'This has absolutely nothing to do with bias, and we of course note the findings,' the spokesman said.
'We would also point out that the committee accepted that the Middle East Editor had been informed that that was the American view by an authoritative source.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0R2ZlETKe
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Comments
Of course, how dare he have the audacity to say such a thing?
In addition, a suggestion that Israel was 'in defiance of everyone's interpretation of international law except its own' was said to have been 'imprecise'.
The whole of the international community - even the U.S - regards the settlements as illegal. So I wonder what the BBC means by the word 'imprecise'?
the bbc wouldn't broadcast pleas for humanitarian aid for palestinians when Israel assaulted Gaza earlier this year, to employ rational reporters just seems a little too...rational for them. they've chosen their side.
Jeremy Bowen's worked for the BBC for years. He used to co-host a popular British breakfast programme on t.v. Since 1995 he's been a Middle East Correspondent for the BBC. The moment he says something even vaguely critical of Israel he creates a shit storm, and accusations of Pro-Palestinian bias and Antisemitism.
If anyone takes a look at what the stated goals of Zionism are, and where international law stands in relation to how the Israeli High Court conducts affairs of state, then they can see that what he said was not controversial at all.
Meanwhile:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8255244.stm
No settlement freeze - Netanyahu
Monday, 14 September 2009
'Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rebuffed US demands for a total freeze on settlement building in the West Bank...
"We made clear that we will build 2,500 housing units which are already in construction," Mr Netanyahu is quoted as saying by a parliamentary official.
"A few days ago, we confirmed 450 additional housing units. I told the Americans that we shall consider scaling down construction."
He said Israel would strike a balance between offering a gesture that would help restart peace negotiations and ensuring a "normal life" for residents in the West Bank settlements.
He also said that any scaling down of construction would be "for a temporary period", not as yet agreed with the Americans.
"The Palestinians expected a complete halt to construction, a freeze, now it is clear that will not be," he went on to say. "Jerusalem is not a settlement, and construction there will continue as usual."
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION ... penElement
U.N Resolution 242
'Emphasizing the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war'
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/385ec082b50 ... 1e004aa3c5
Article 49 of The Fourth Geneva Convention
'The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.'