BBC Watch’s first birthday

Twelve months ago we launched BBC Watch. 

It has been a rewarding, intense, challenging and sometimes frustrating year which saw us thrown in at the deep end when Operation Pillar of Cloud began just a month after our launch. Hot on the heels of that came the Israeli elections, the Obama visit and the renewal of talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority – with all receiving ample coverage from the BBC.

We have endeavoured throughout this last year to stick to our original remit of monitoring as much Israel-related BBC output as possible “with the object of ensuring adherence to the BBC’s own editorial guidelines and its legal obligation to provide accurate and impartial news, information and analysis to its funding public”. Many of you have helped us with that task by sending us tips on programmes you have seen or head, and this is the place to thank you all for that very valuable help and ask you to continue to do so.

We have also tried to be a useful resource for the general public by presenting factual information, context and tips on navigation of the labyrinth known as the BBC’s complaints procedure and we hope you have found that side of our content useful.

Over 700 articles on, and looking ahead to our second year, we would very much like our readers to use the comments below as a ‘suggestion box’: tell us what you would like to see here in the future and how you think our work could be improved.

And in the meantime, here is a reminder that BBC watchers can have their say in the form of the BBC Trust’s ongoing public consultation on news output. If you haven’t already done so, now would be a good time to make your opinions known. 

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