Observers have long recognized BBC as
one of the worst violators of media objectivity when covering
Arab-Israeli and Jewish-Muslim issues. This latest example of BBC
corporate policy adds to that mountain of evidence:
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Robert Kilroy-Silk |
On Jan. 9,
BBC took Robert Kilroy-Silk's
morning program off the air after Kilroy-Silk made offensive
statements against Arabs in a
newspaper article. The BBC action followed a complaint from the Muslim
Council of Britain.
While one can understand the
offense taken by the Muslim community to Kilroy-Silk's views,
HonestReporting is startled by the quick action of the BBC in this
affair, in light of the years of BBC tolerance of vicious
anti-Israel statements by its on-air personalities ― in particular,
poet and frequent BBC host Tom Paulin.
In April 2002, Paulin stated in an
interview to the Egyptian weekly
Al-Ahram that
"Brooklyn-born" settlers in the occupied territories "should be shot dead."
"I think they are Nazis, racists. I feel nothing but hatred for them,"
Paulin said, adding: "I never believed that Israel had the right to
exist at all." Despite complaint from the Jewish community about
these statements and Paulin's
other comparisons of Israelis to Nazis, the BBC continued to
allow Paulin to be a regular contributor to the BBC Newsnight
Review arts program.
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Tom Paulin |
A British parliament member, quoted in
the
Telegraph,
questions the BBC's double standard:
Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP, said he found it hard to understand why the BBC had moved against Mr Kilroy-Silk but had not taken any action against Mr Paulin.
"I am not defending anything Mr Kilroy-Silk has said, but I was greatly upset by what Mr Paulin said, and I think the rules should apply to people equally," said Mr Dismore.
"Mr Paulin said awful things about Israel and Jewish people. He should have
been kept off BBC screens while his own comments were investigated. I was
surprised that that did not happen. It smacks of double standards on the part
of the BBC."
A number of American universities, including Harvard, cancelled planned
readings by Paulin after his call to murder, but the BBC never sought to remove Paulin from
Newsnight Review.
BBC had
only this to say: "[Paulin's] polemical, knockabout, style
has ruffled feathers in the US, where the Jewish question is notoriously
sensitive."
The 'Jewish question'? This is the language of official 1930's
Germany, where the Jewish people were considered a 'question' to be 'solved'.
And why does BBC consider sensitivity to these issues as 'notorious'?
BBC was the ignoble recipient of the
2001 Dishonest Reporting 'Award', and last year the government of Israel
broke all official contact with BBC (after BBC broadcast the false accusation
that Israel used nerve gas against Palestinians). And now, the parallel
circumstances of Tom Paulin and Robert Kilroy-Silk demonstrate even further
that a level of tolerance exists for Israel-bashers that BBC will simply
not countenance elsewhere.
How ironic that the Muslim Council of Britain's
complaint to the BBC was
worded as follows: "We wonder whether you would consider it proper to give the
same kind of prominence to a presenter who was so openly anti-black or
anti-Jewish?"
In fact, with Tom Paulin, the BBC is doing just that.
--- BBC's Royal Charter Renewal ---
The British public, meanwhile, pays for
BBC's irresponsible journalism: The BBC is largely funded by the 2.3
billion pounds ($3.9 billion US) it receives yearly from a mandatory
116 pound ($213) licensing fee levied upon every UK television owner.
In return, BBC's
Royal Charter demands "authoritative and impartial coverage of
news and current affairs in the United Kingdom and throughout the
world" ― a far cry from what BBC delivers.
It is high time that the BBC be forced to compete
in the open marketplace like all other news agencies. In that
scenario, the general public could demand journalistic integrity from
the BBC front office, editors and reporters.
The time is right to act ― the BBC's Royal
Charter and funding are presently under British governmental review.
HonestReporting encourages subscribers to support the cancellation or
non-renewal of the charter by writing to UK Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell:
tessa.jowell@culture.gsi.gov.uk
British citizens are further encouraged to
support the petition drive to end the TV licensing fee that funds the
BBC: just click here.
Thank you for your ongoing involvement
in the battle against media bias.
HonestReporting.com
