Editing Category:Archive (section)

== ‘Divorced from reality’ ==
A spokesman for Camera said: “Just over a month ago, director-general Tim Davie said in Parliament that ‘we should be very proud’ of the BBC Arabic’s output, offering ‘enormous pressures’ as relevant context for its staff’s various shortcomings.

“According to the BBC spokespeople’s usual mantra, meanwhile, the service’s journalistic work ‘adheres to the same Editorial Guidelines and standards’ as the rest of the BBC.

“But the sheer amount of corrections to Israel-related reports, with over 30 per cent of post-Oct 7 complaints still pending to this day, although long overdue, shows just how divorced from reality these statements are.

“In fact, the biased output of the Arabic service does not follow the same rulebook as the English one, nor can it be explained away just by ‘pressures’ in the field. Clearly, it is not even remotely something to be proud of.

“This level of detachment on the BBC management’s part, alongside the complaints system’s failure to provide a timely and diligent remedy for the situation, is what brought us months ago to call for a parliamentary inquiry with real investigative powers in an attempt to finally hold BBC Arabic responsible for basic standards of accuracy and impartiality.”