Love of the Land: BBC Panorama: Misleading account of east Jerusalem shooting

BBC Panorama: Misleading account of east Jerusalem shooting

Just Journalism
justjournalism.com
21 January '10

Tuesday’s edition of BBC documentary programme Panorama focused on the tensions between Jews and Palestinians in east Jerusalem, a subject gaining increasing attention in UK Middle East reporting.

‘A walk in the park’, presented by BBC journalist Jane Corbin, addressed Jewish building, archaeology and development in the eastern side of the city, and the impact these activities are having on Palestinian residents. Demolitions, evictions and concerns about Muslim prayer sites were all covered at length, conveying clearly to viewers a message of Palestinian suffering, despair and uncertainty.

One incident, given substantial coverage in the documentary, was portrayed by the BBC in a highly misleading way, by the heavy emphasis of one version of events to the near exclusion of the other. All the relevant facts were in the public domain, making this difficult to justify.

The episode involved the shooting of two Palestinians, one of whom was Silwan resident Ahmad Qaareen, by an Israeli in September 2009 in east Jerusalem. It was covered in the Israeli press at the time, with both Ha’aretz and Ynet reporting that the Israeli shooter claimed he had acted in self-defence after being attacked by Palestinians and that he was subsequently released from custody on that basis.

Two problems emerged in the reporting:

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Related: BBC: Denying Jewish Jerusalem
Prime time BBC documentary on Jerusalem: An anatomy of bias and distortion

Love of the Land: BBC Panorama: Misleading account of east Jerusalem shooting

Love of the Land: BBC: Denying Jewish Jerusalem

BBC: Denying Jewish Jerusalem

Honest Reporting
Media Critiques
20 January '10

On 18 January, the BBC's flagship documentary program, Panorama, focused on tensions in the area of eastern Jerusalem adjacent to the Old City.

Any pretence at balance is thrown out of the window as reporter Jane Corbin makes it clear that, under the BBC's own interpretation of international law, anything that Israel does in that part of the city is illegal, setting the tone for the entire 30 minute program.

Thus, Israelis are presented as usurpers of Palestinian rights and property in eastern Jerusalem in a one-sided piece of agitprop. As analyst Robin Shepherd writes:

Rarely will you get a clearer insight into the flagrant institutional bias inside the world's most powerful media outlet than this. The slipperiness of the tactics employed, the unabashed censorship of vital historical context, and the blatant pursuit of a political agenda constituted a lesson in the techniques of modern day propaganda. It was something to behold.

Here we examine some of the assumptions, claims and biases that underpin this edition of Panorama.

This edition of Panorama is available to view on YouTube in three parts. Click below to view Part 1. (For links to view Parts 2 and 3, go to full report below.)



(This is an all encompassing article. Click here to read full report)

Love of the Land: BBC: Denying Jewish Jerusalem

Love of the Land: Prime time BBC documentary on Jerusalem: An anatomy of bias and distortion

Prime time BBC documentary on Jerusalem: An anatomy of bias and distortion

Robin Shepherd
Robin Shepherd Online
19 January '10

On Monday night, the BBC’s flagship documentary programme Panorama was devoted to Jerusalem. Rarely will you get a clearer insight into the flagrant institutional bias inside the world’s most powerful media outlet than this. The slipperiness of the tactics employed, the unabashed censorship of vital historical context, and the blatant pursuit of a political agenda constituted a lesson in the techniques of modern day propaganda. It was something to behold.

Entitled “A Walk in the Park” — a reference to the parkways which link settlements across East Jerusalem — the programme was introduced by veteran BBC reporter Jeremy Vine: “Palestinians are being thrown out of their homes; Israelis are moving in, even underground,” he tells us. The drama then shifts to Jerusalem itself where Jane Corbin, narrator and reporter on the ground, is ready to begin a demolition job all of her own.

Right away, the documentary cuts to the destruction of a Palestinian home: “…roads were sealed. The Israelis don’t make it easy to see what’s going on,” we are ominously told as she skips daringly down a dirt track to avoid the watchful eye of the dastardly Israelis.

So why, one wonders, would the Israelis be so keen to hide their dirty little secret? “Under international law,” she tells us earnestly, “East Jerusalem is occupied territory; its status shouldn’t be changed.”

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Love of the Land: Prime time BBC documentary on Jerusalem: An anatomy of bias and distortion