Balen Report update

I have blogged about the disgusting way that the BBC have fought to keep the Balen Report secret for so long.

As I have said before, I think we can draw our own conclusions as to what the Balen Report found, from how resolutely the BBC has fought to keep its findings from reaching our eyes. I wonder how the BBC would react if the Balen Report was leaked, after all they do favour such leakings when it helps the interests of their friends on the left of politics.

So I was angered, if not surprised, to read at the Commentator the following:

'Today, The Commentator reveals a Freedom of Information request showing that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has so far spent almost a third of a million pounds (more than half a million dollars) in order to conceal the infamous 'Balen Report', into the corporation's coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict, from the British public.

Britons are required by law to own licences in order to use televisions. This raises £3.6billion in funding for the state broadcaster. Despite this public funding, the BBC does not have to comply with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 with regard to actual information held for the purposes of journalism, art or literature.

The Balen Report was written in 2004 and campaigners say the BBC does not wish to release the document over fears that it will substantiate claims of BBC bias against Israel. Ironically, it is understood that former Director of News for the BBC, Richard Sambrook, commissioned the report in order to allay public fears.

The report, however, was never released.

Since 2004, campaigners have attempted to coax the BBC into releasing the report, taking the organisation through a series of legal battles in order to view the information held within.

It has now come to light that the BBC has spent almost a third of a million pounds to hide the report from the public eye: "The legal costs incurred by the BBC amount to £332,780.47," the BBC said.

 The actual cost to the BBC is likely to be far higher, as in-house legal time is not factored in and nor is Value Added Tax.'

Given the way that the BBC has fought so hard to keep the Balen Report secret, is it fair to assume that the report does not say that the BBC's coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict is entirely unbiased? What is also interesting is that the BBC is usually so in favour of 'freedom of information', witness their joy over the Wikileaks site. It couldn't be the case that the BBC only favour leaks that help further causes dear to their hearts, could it?

Anyone listening to or watching the BBC's coverage of Israel and the Palestinians can be in no doubt that the BBC is decidedly biased against Israel. It seems pretty clear that a report into this area would find such bias. The BBC's desperate and determined efforts to keep the Balen Report secret can only confirm this view.

It is pretty certain that if the Balen Report cleared the BBC of anti-Israel bias then they would happily release it, that they don't can mean just one thing.