Previously we documented an inaccurate claim made in a BBC News website backgrounder titled ‘What is behind Turkey’s staunch support for Hamas in Gaza?’ which currently appears in the ‘Middle East’ page’s ‘features’ section.
Written by Ece Goksedef, that backgrounder told readers that in 2010 the Mavi Marmara “sailed from Istanbul to Gaza with volunteers and humanitarian aid”. As noted, on at least three occasions in the past decade the BBC has had to correct the inaccurate claim that the Mavi Marmara was carrying “humanitarian aid”.
BBC NEWS CONTINUES TO PROMOTE PREVIOUSLY CORRECTED INACCURACY
CAMERA UK submitted a complaint to the BBC and received the following reply from the BBC News website:
“I appreciate your concerns that we have reported incorrect information about the Mavi Marmara.
I have done further research and can see you are correct.
To the best of my knowledge the Mavi Marmara was not carrying aid, but it was leading a flotilla of boats which were.
We have since updated the story with correct information and written a correction note on the story for the sake of transparency.
Unfortunately in a busy newsroom sometimes inadvertent errors which are usually spotted by editors can get missed, which is why we are grateful for readers like yourself who write in, helping us to improve our coverage.”
The report was amended on January 4th and the relevant section now reads:
“But just a year later tensions reached breaking point when a ship, the Mavi Marmara, sailed from Istanbul to Gaza leading a flotilla of boats carrying volunteers and humanitarian aid to challenge Israel’s maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip.”
The footnote appended to the report reads as follows:
As we see, the BBC News website did not offer an explanation for the fact that well over a decade since it was first obliged to correct its inaccurate portrayal of the Mavi Marmara as an “aid ship”, and with similar corrections having been made on at least two subsequent occasions, that ‘inadvertent error’ keeps recurring.
The Mavi Marmara was a political stunt meant to gin up sympathy and support for an enclave run by an internationally recognized terrorist group. International aid has poured in like it’s the last cause on earth, and despite a Chapter 7 UNSC Resolution prohibiting aid to such terrorist groups.
When the BBC finally announces that this was a political stunt rather than some desperately need aid flotilla, then it will finally be approaching some facsimile of honest journalism. Until it does, it will just be a part of the problem eating away at its own credibility and the future stability of Western civilization.
BBC has no credibility as far as Israel is concerned – for decades under the guidance of Jeremy Bowen it has always distorted information/news by missing out the important salient facts – it was done by Paul Adams in the 1990’s in association with Bowen and has never stopped.
The shirking UK Jewish leadership failed abysmally to stop this and buried their little heads in the sand hoping it would never reappear quashing the pro activists in the community to silence by an informal imposed censorship in the UK Jewish media. The Jewish News and JC in particular!
When will the Balen Report from 2004, investigating the BBC and its antisemitic journalism be released. The BBC refuses to release the report. Could the reason be any more obvious ?