Last month we documented a BBC News website report dating from June 12th in which readers were misled on the topic of ICC arrest warrants:
BBC NEWS WEBSITE PROMOTES INACCURATE CLAIMS ABOUT ICC WARRANTS
CAMERA UK submitted a complaint to the BBC on that issue, pointing out that Matt Murphy’s claim that the ICC “has issued warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders” – as well as similar claims later in the report – was inaccurate and required correction.
On July 3rd we received the following reply from the BBC News website:
“Thank you for getting in touch about our article Israel, Hamas accused of war crimes in new UN report
You raise a fair point and we have amended the article and added a correction note advising readers of the change.
Please accept our apologies for the error and thank you for bringing this to our attention.”
The amendments made are as follows: [emphasis added]
Original:
“Michael Becker, a professor of international human rights law at Trinity College Dublin, told the BBC that the International Criminal Court (ICC) – which has issued warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders – would likely rely on the report to find new lines of inquiry it can pursue in its investigation, but that it was unlikely to serve as “direct evidence” in the case.”
Amended:
Michael Becker, a professor of international human rights law at Trinity College Dublin, told the BBC that the International Criminal Court (ICC) – whose chief prosecutor has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders – would likely rely on the report to find new lines of inquiry it can pursue in its investigation, but that it was unlikely to serve as “direct evidence” in the case.
Original:
“Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri and Ismail Haniyeh are already subject to an arrest warrant issued by the ICC for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant are also subject to similar warrants.”
Amended:
“Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri and Ismail Haniyeh face possible arrest warrants by the ICC for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also face similar potential warrants. Wednesday’s report specifically attacked the rhetoric used by some unnamed Israeli officials, which it said could amount to “incitement” and may constitute “other serious international crimes”.
The footnote appended to the report reads as follows:
Duvid just googled Michael Becker. He is an assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin, not a full professor. These are two different jobs, following the US academic model, where there are simply loads of assistant professors. In the UK, rather than Ireland, they are virtually equivalent to lecturers, whereas full professors are tenured. He is still Mr. Becker and has yet to complete his doctorate.
The Israel-hating biased BBC doubly inaccurately left out the word “assistant” in his title. This was doubtless done deliberately, in order to give him more kudos than his anti-Israel innacuracy deserves.