BBC corrects Jeremy Bowen’s inaccurate Abu Akleh claim

Earlier this week we noted the BBC Middle East editor’s promotion of a claim concerning the death of Shireen Abu Akleh on BBC One’s ‘News at Ten’ on July 14th.

Jeremy Bowen told viewers:

“And he’ll [Joe Biden] see many portraits of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American journalist killed by Israeli troops in May.” [emphasis added]

BBC’S BOWEN PROMOTES ‘APARTHEID’ SMEAR AND UNPROVEN ABU AKLEH CLAIM

Along with others, CAMERA UK submitted a complaint on that matter, pointing out that it has not been proven that Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli troops and that when the BBC’s Middle East editor makes such an inaccurate and overtly political statement, the damage to impressions of BBC impartiality is very serious indeed.

Five days later we received the following response from BBC Complaints:

“Thanks [sic] you for contacting us about the News at Ten, broadcast on 14 July.

During our report on policy areas that would be on the agenda during Joe Biden’s visit to the Middle East, we briefly referenced the shooting of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, and said she had been “killed by Israeli troops”.

The findings of the UN report published last month pointed to the shots that killed Abu Akleh as coming from the Israeli Security Forces, and the US investigation confirmed that this was likely to be the case, although it could not prove it forensically.

Although this was a general report rather than an examination of the circumstances of her death we would agree it would have been preferable to have referred to the investigations and the way their conclusions were phrased.

We have acknowledged this on the BBC Corrections and Clarifications website:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/helpandfeedback/corrections_clarifications/

We’ve shared your feedback with senior editors at BBC News.”

That correction – which interestingly does not mention the name of the journalist concerned – reads as follows:

One can of course only wonder how many of the millions of viewers who watched that report from Jeremy Bowen will happen to visit the BBC’s ‘Corrections and Clarifications’ webpage and come across that ‘acknowledgement’. 

Related Articles:

BBC NEWS AGAIN PROMOTES ‘CONCLUSIONS’ ABOUT ABU AKLEH’S DEATH

BBC COVERAGE OF US STATEMENT ON ABU AKLEH INVESTIGATION

GUARDIAN CORRECTS NEWS ARTICLE CLAIMING IDF KILLED SHIREEN ABU AKLEH

BBC EXPLOITS BIDEN VISIT FOR MORE PROMOTION OF UNPROVEN ABU AKLEH CLAIMS

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6 Comments

  1. says: Grimey

    This BBC tactic of intentionally reporting endless lies demonising Israel – made in the safe knowledge that any grudgingly conceded retraction/apologies can follow later and will not be read – is utterly disgraceful. Let us hope that Liz Truss will have the guts to condemn and stop it.

  2. says: Michael Vaar

    What puzzles me about all these continuing stories of inaccurate reporting is that there appears to be no editorial oversight.
    It’s surprising that there’s apparently no mechanism for fact-checking reports before they are broadcast.

  3. says: Neil C

    There is about as much chance of that happening Grimey as the world governments admitting that we get visited by aliens.
    #retirebowen #defundthebbc

  4. says: Steve

    Gee. And all this time I thought this was all because we murdered Jesus. And then there was that time that we spread the plague throughout Europe, and went about drinking the blood of Christian babies. But it eventually became clear that they do this only because we control Hollywood, Basketball and real estate in New York. Finally. The truth came out two years ago, when it became obvious that we had spent all those centuries breeding bats in China to disseminate viruses (bored, of course by the decades that passed since we blew up those two buildings in New York). At last the REAL reason – this was all a plot to mesmerize humanity in order to sneak into a hostile town filled with Islamic butchers … and assassinate some middle-aged anti-Semite who covers her frowsy midsection with garments that say “Journalist.”

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