BBC News corrects terrorist release report following complaint

In early January we noted that a BBC report about the release of a terrorist from prison included inaccurate presentation of the location of the murder of which he was convicted forty years ago:

“Avraham (Avi) Bromberg was not kidnapped and murdered “in the occupied Golan Heights” as claimed by Gritten. Bromberg did serve as a tank mechanic in the Golan Heights but on the day that he was kidnapped and shot in the head, he was on his way home to Zichron Ya’akov.”

INACCURACY AND OMISSION IN BBC REPORT ON RELEASE OF TERRORIST

CAMERA UK submitted a complaint to the BBC in which we also noted that while the report uncritically promoted two quotes from the PA president, it did not clarify that in 2017 the same terrorist was appointed – despite his proven record of terrorism, kidnapping and murder – to Fatah’s central committee by the same Mahmoud Abbas.

On January 16th the BBC informed us that it would take more time to address our complaint and on February 6th we received an email informing us that the time frame for addressing our complaint had expired.

On February 17th we received the following communication from the BBC News website:

“Thank you for getting in touch about our article Israel releases longest-serving Palestinian prisoner and please accept our apologies for the long delay in our response.

You raise a fair point and we amended the article’s second paragraph to make clear that Avi Bromberg was kidnapped and murdered “in Northern Israel three years earlier”.

We have also added a correction note advising readers of the change.

Separately, we note your view that the article should have explained that in 2017 Younis was appointed to Fatah’s central committee by Mahmoud Abbas.

While we don’t think this was an essential inclusion on this occasion, your concerns have been discussed with the team.”

The footnote added to the report reads as follows:

Notably, the BBC did not provide any explanation as to why such a simple factual correction took nearly six weeks. 

 

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2 Comments

  1. says: Neil C

    Six weeks is certainly better that 6 months or years but should never have happened in the first place. What is wrong with journalists of today? are they just too lazy to ascertain the correct facts before publishing or is this just another of the BBC’s methods of ensuring the lies get read and the truth forgotten. #journalismisdead #defundthebbc

  2. says: Malone Cooper

    It took the BBC 6 weeks to figure out if there was any other way to wiggle out of this complaint. No surprise, they STILL haven’t released the Balen Report from 2004 that researched the BBC and it’s antisemitism.

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