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Tuesday 30 October 2012

Jeremy Bowen protesting his lack of bias again and not accepting the verdict of the BBC Trust

The BBC's Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, is interviewed by The Telegraph. Take a read although you may need a strong stomach to read Jeremy Bowen's words. Here's three paragraphs to give you a flavour:
'In 2004 the BBC commissioned the Balen Report on its reporting of the Middle East. It subsequently refused to release the document on the grounds that it was the result of an internal editorial exercise. An application under the Freedom of Information Act to have the report made public was rejected by the Supreme Court this year, but the corporation, which reportedly spent £350,000 to keep its findings private, was left facing charges of hypocrisy and a cover-up, amid rumours that its coverage, including Bowen’s, had been found to be anti-Israeli.

 Bowen came in for more direct criticism in 2009 when a pro-Israel group in the United States accused him of bias against Israel, citing radio and online reports on the history of the Six Day War. He was said to have breached BBC guidelines on accuracy and impartiality 24 times during the reports, but the BBC Trust only fully or partially upheld three of the allegations. No disciplinary action was taken. “The trust got into an overly complicated complaints procedure which, I think I’m right in saying, they have now simplified. They had a panel of laymen who had to try and pronounce on quite complex issues of Middle Eastern politics and they were non-specialists. I thought the basis on which they made their decision was wrong.”

He also dismisses claims that the death of Abed changed him. “It was very traumatic, but there is a strange narrative put about by certain pro-Israel anti-BBC campaign groups that somehow my brain chemistry was altered by it and I can’t help myself and I have to have a go at Israel whenever I can. It is not the case, I take each case on its merits.”'
My views on the BBC's cover-up of the Balen Report are well known. It is inconceivable to me that the Balen Report found anything other than anti-Israel bias at the BBC, first because it's so obvious and second because why else would the BBC be so keen to keep it under wraps.

You were found out in 2009 Jeremy, just accept it.

I don't believe that the death of Abed changed his brain chemistry and I've not heard of that theory. However I find it hard to believe that the death of a friend at the hands of the Israelis has made Jeremy Bowen anything other than more biased against Israel. It would be a natural reaction for most people.

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