On June 12th visitors to the BBC News website’s Middle East page found an article titled “Orange’s Stephane Richard tells Israel of regret over comments” which gives an account of the telecom company CEO’s visit to Israel in the wake of his recent remarks made in Cairo concerning his company’s wish to “withdraw” from business in Israel.
The BBC article states:
However, during his visit Mr Richard stressed that Partner is not an affiliate of Orange.
“Last Thursday, Orange announced it wanted to sever that business tie, but Richard said firmly at one point in the interview that Orange would “honor” its contract, and at another point that Orange and Partner would “assess… the situation” together. He said he had not sought to meet with Partner officials on this trip, and they had not offered to meet with him. The purpose of the visit was not to negotiate with Partner, he said, stressing that Israel is the only country in the world where the Orange brand is not represented by an affiliate. The Israeli firm is “not an affiliate” of Orange’s, and he had no control over its dealings here, including in the West Bank, he said.” [emphasis added]
The television interview in which Mr Richard made that statement can be seen here with the relevant section beginning from 1:42.
In this latest article readers also saw the repetition of statements made in the BBC’s previous report on the same story.
Once again BBC News refrains from providing its audiences with an accurate and impartial account of the BDS campaign’s real aims and yet again the BBC breaches its own editorial guidelines on impartiality by failing to inform audiences of the existence of legal opinions which contradict the corporation’s standard mantra on “international law”.
Interestingly, the BBC did not see fit to inform readers of the lack of interest on the part of the BDS campaign in Orange’s business activities in Armenia.
