BBC admits inaccuracies in coverage

Network falsely reported house demolition, Ban Ki-moon condemnation of Israeli "attacks on civilians."

By JONNY PAUL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT, LONDON
house demolition 224 88 (photo credit: AP [file])
house demolition 224 88
(photo credit: AP [file])
The BBC has apologized for significant errors in two recent news reports on Israel. In a news item on March 7, following the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva attack, the BBC showed a bulldozer demolishing a house, while correspondent Nick Miles told viewers: "Hours after the attack, Israeli bulldozers destroyed his family home. Later, mourners set up Hamas and Islamic Jihad banners nearby." The house, however, was not demolished; the BBC was embarrassed when news reports from other broadcasters showed the east Jerusalem home intact and the family commemorating their son's actions. Last week, the BBC apologized live on its news program, admitting it had used footage of another house being demolished. News anchor Geeta Guru-Murthy said: "Now, we would like to clarify a report we heard at this hour last Friday about the attack by a Palestinian gunman on a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem. In the report, the day after the attack, BBC World said that the gunman's home in east Jerusalem had been demolished by the Israeli authorities. That was not correct, and the images broadcast were of another demolition." The fabrication was exposed by Boston-based media monitor CAMERA, which revealed that the images used by the BBC were similar to photos taken by the Palestinian news agency Maan from the demolition of the house belonging to Islamic Jihad leader Muhammad Shehadeh in Bethlehem on March 7. In a second incident, in a news item entitled "Israel jets strike northern Gaza" on March 14 on their News Web site, the BBC reported that Israel was deliberately targeting civilians in an operation targeting Kassam rocket launch sites in Gaza, and claiming that the United Nations secretary-general had described it as an attack on civilians. "The Israeli air force said it was targeting a rocket firing team... UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Israel's attacks on Palestinian civilians, calling them inappropriate and disproportionate," the report said. In a letter to the BBC, Manchester Jewish community member Jonathan Hantman wrote, "It is one-sided for the report to describe Israel's operations as 'attacks on civilians' while not describing the Palestinian rocket attacks, to which Israel was responding, as 'attacks on civilians' or 'acts of terrorism.'" Hantman also pointed out that Ban's attributed comments were made weeks earlier to the UN Security Council and not in reference to that particular attack. He added that it was also wrong to mention the UN secretary-general's condemnation of Israel without mentioning his condemnation of Palestinian rocket attacks in the same statement. "Ban's statement, made some two weeks ago, did not refer to yesterday's attack and did not describe Israel's operations on Gaza as 'attacks on civilians,'" Hantman noted. "He did, however, describe Palestinian rocket attacks as 'acts of terrorism.'" In his statement to the UN Security Council on March 1, Ban said: "While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, I condemn the disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children... I condemn Palestinian rocket attacks and call for the immediate cessation of such acts of terrorism." Apologizing for the error, the BBC said in its response, regarding the speech: "We accept we should have made reference to what [Ban] said about Palestinian rocket attacks as well as to the 'excessive use of force' by Israel. We have amended the report, also removing the reference to Israeli 'attacks on civilians.'"