BBC blurs Iranian regime role in 2012 attacks

On August 22nd 2013 a short report titled “Thailand court jails Iranians over bomb plot” appeared on the Middle East and Asia pages of the BBC News website. 

Thailand court

In the report’s sixth paragraph readers learn that:

“The two defendants were part of what Thai officials believe was a team sent to Thailand to target Israeli diplomats in Bangkok.

The blasts came a day after two bomb attacks targeted Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia.”

The BBC then adds:

“Israel has accused Iran of orchestrating the attacks, a charge which Iran denies.”

The BBC neglects to inform its readers that the police investigation into the attack in New Delhi – in which the wife of an Israeli diplomat, her driver and two bystanders were injured – resulted in India’s police concluding that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were behind the attack or that US counter-terrorism officials have reached the same conclusion as their Israeli counterparts.  

The BBC also omits any information regarding the related Red Notice put out by Interpol in March 2012.

Interpol

Hence, BBC audiences are herded towards forming the mistaken impression that the two claims – accusation and denial – are of equal weight, whilst the fact that evidence gathered by other bodies supports the Israeli assessment is concealed from them.

That is not impartial reporting: it is misleading reporting. 

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