Another site that will try to hold the BBC to account

I spotted on Twitter this morning that the excellent Guardian Comment Is Free monitor has now been joined by a sister service - BBCWatch.

BBCWatch's first post runs thus:

'Welcome to BBC Watch

BBC Watch is a sister project of CiF Watch (founded in 2009 to monitor the Guardian’s ‘Comment is Free’ website) with the independent support of CAMERA (the Committee for Accurate Middle East Reporting in America). 

Its aim is to monitor BBC output on the subject of Israel with the object of ensuring adherence to the BBC’s own editorial guidelines and its legal obligation to provide accurate and impartial news, information and analysis to its funding public.  

The BBC is the largest broadcasting organisation in the world today and also one of the most influential. However, the BBC’s coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict has long been a source of frustration to many, with severe criticism of its standards of accuracy and impartiality being voiced.

When the BBC fails to meet standards of accuracy and impartiality, it matters not only because of the effect this has on public opinion in the UK and worldwide, but also because the BBC is in fact neglecting its duty to increase the understanding of the people who fund it. As the former Chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, once wrote:

“The day the BBC accepts reporting that is mostly true is the day we no longer deserve the licence fee.” 

The BBC Watch website includes background information on the BBC itself and its editors, on the editorial standards to which it aspires and on existing reports about, and critiques of, BBC content. It also provides information to the general public about the different ways of getting involved and on complaints procedures. 

Our regularly updated blog page will examine BBC output and provide complimentary information.  
We welcome public participation in alerting us to BBC errors or distortions. Please contact us at contactus@bbcwatch.org.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the different areas of the website and follow us on Twitter at @bbcwatch and like us on Facebook.'

That the BBC's reporting is anti-Israelis accepted as beyond reasonable doubt, so BBCWatch will have much material to report on.

Maybe BBC Watch along with blogs such as mine will manage to increase the pressure on the BBC to such an extent that they have to make their coverage of Israel fairer. Of course I know that won't happen, the BBC is irredeemably anti-Israel, but that shouldn't stop people trying to hold them to account, documenting the bias and spreading the word.