arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Embassy in London blasts BBC reporting
By Douglas Davis

LONDON (September 20) - The Israeli Embassy in London has accused the BBC of deliberately downplaying Palestinian celebrations following last week's attacks on the United States.

Noting the Palestinian Authority's threat on the life of an Associated Press photographer if images of Palestinian festivities were broadcast, embassy press secretary D.J. Schneeweis said BBC reporters in Israel appeared to have either "succumbed to similar intimidation" or have themselves taken the decision to "limit the damage to the Palestinian image abroad."

In a letter to senior BBC executives, Schneeweis said Jerusalem Correspondent Orla Guerrin "went to great lengths to put the pictures 'in context,' and insisted that the celebratory pictures did not reflect the sentiments of the majority of Palestinians.

"This effort to guide viewers to a conclusion distinct from the pictures broadcast was repeated almost verbatim later on BBC News 24 by your correspondent Barbara Plett," he wrote.

"My question is whether these blatant and apparently coordinated attempts to guide the British audience away from making its own judgments about the pictures on their screens did not derive from the BBC's correspondents bowing to Palestinian pressure.

"If this is not the case," said Schneeweis, "then it would appear that we have an equally grave situation in which the BBC's correspondents willfully and of their own accord see themselves as champions of the Palestinian cause, mobilizing at a time of a [Palestinian public relations] crisis to limit the damage to the Palestinian image abroad."

Israeli officials are often "comforted" by senior BBC journalists and executives that "Israel is held to a different standard than its neighbors precisely because Israel is respected as a liberal democracy," he said.

But he added that "when it comes to Palestinian behavior, all such standards seem to be subordinated to the perceived need [whether because of coercion or at the BBC's own volition] to engender 'understanding' and empathy for the Palestinian case.

"We have lost count of the number of times in the past week that the BBC has broadcast facile and unfounded claims about Israel's policy vis-ˆ-vis the Palestinians, quoting Palestinian accusations against Israel as news, while Israeli concerns about Palestinian violence are readily ignored, as are actual and repeated attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinians."

In a related development, BBC director-general Greg Dyke has apologized for broadcasting a live television discussion in which audience members blamed US foreign policy for the terror attacks.

The apology followed complaints by more than 2,000 viewers who saw former US ambassador to Britain Philip Lader brought close to tears after his attempts to express his sadness were shouted down by the rants of audience members expressing anti-American views.

Muslims, apparently specially invited by the BBC, goaded Lader by repeatedly demanding to know if he finally understood "why so many people hate America."

"On balance, I think it was an inappropriate program to broadcast live," said Dyke. "I would like to apologize to viewers who were offended by it. With hindsight this program should have been recorded and edited before it was broadcast."

Dyke added that he had apologized to Lader "for any distress the program may have caused him."