Israelis are calling for a boycott of the BBC. I don’t blame them:
The Foreign Ministry is under pressure from Israeli citizens to resume its boycott of the BBC and to withdraw credentials from its reporters due to “one-sided” reports on the war in Lebanon, Israeli diplomatic officials said Wednesday.
For seven months during a wave of Palestinian violence in 2003, Israeli officials boycotted BBC news programs, declining interviews and excluding BBC reporters from briefings. The boycott was ended after the BBC appointed a panel to oversee its Middle East coverage and to ensure it would be unbiased.
Ah yes: a panel. And what were the fruits of this panel’s review?
The BBC has rejected a call made by an independent panel studying charges of bias in its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to change its editorial policies on the use of the word “terrorist” and appoint a senior editor to oversee its Middle East coverage.
Boycott on.