European Jewish Press
reports that the BBC's Board of Governors censured BBC Online for a report saying the United Nations had "called for Israel’s unilateral withdrawal" from all territories gained during the Six-Day War, when in fact the UN only "called for a negotiated 'land for peace' settlement."
The governors report, which specifically singled out the reporting of the UN resolution after the 1967 Israeli-Arab ’Six-day war’, stated that the piece on the BBC news website did not give a balanced view of events.Absence of factual reporting
The UN Security Council 242 is very specific when it calls for a connection between a "withdrawal from territories" and all nations in the region’s "right to live in peace".
The wording of the resolution refers to "territories" and not "the territories" meaning that the resolution never calls on Israel to withdraw from all territory captured during the war.
At the time the British Ambassador who drafted the approved resolution, Lord Caradon said: "It would have been wrong to demand that Israel return to its positions of June 4, 1967, because those positions were undesirable and artificial.”
The BBC governors’ report concluded: "The committee considered that by selecting only references to Israel, the online article did not accurately reflect this balance and gave a biased impression. It therefore breached editorial standards on both accuracy and impartiality".
BBC under-fire
The BBC has frequently come under fire for what pro-Israel groups call biased reporting. In October 2004, BBC correspondent Barbara Plett reported on Yasser Arafat being transported to Paris for surgery said she "started to cry."
The BBC initially cleared Plett of any wrongdoing. Following an appeal, however, the BBC Board of Governors has upheld part of the complaint, stating that Plett’s comments "breached the requirements of due impartiality".
