A Palestinian protester wearing a Santa Claus costume is carried by medics after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli troops during clashes at Bethlehem checkpoint in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Last month, the BBC sent an email to the UK-based campaigning organization Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) which was almost comical in its arrogance.
It was a response to a complaint made by PSC in October that BBC online reports were referring to the Gaza ceasefire as holding, despite the fact that by the end of October, Israel had breached the ceasefire numerous times since it was signed on 26 August.
In fact, Israel has fired on Palestinians in Gaza almost on a daily basis.
In its initial complaint, PSC referred to the website of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), which documents incidents of ceasefire breaches. These breaches had been collated in an article published by Middle East Monitor (MEMO), which reported that there was more than one Israeli attack on Gaza every day in September. The MEMO article was also included in PSC’s submission.
At the beginning of November, the BBC emailed to say: “You direct us to a non-BBC online report as evidence that the ceasefire has been violated by Israel. While we will not comment on the content or accuracy of what is published elsewhere, we would assure you that we are committed to due impartiality in respect of all our news reports and we are careful that this is maintained.”
There is more than a touch of Kafka about the first sentence of the BBC’s response, which seems to be suggesting that if anyone wants to prove that the ceasefire has been broken, and the BBC is wrong to say it is holding, then the proof that it has been broken must come from a BBC report — a report which doesn’t exist — as the BBC will not accept “a non-BBC online report as evidence.”
Read more at:
