Response from BBC to complaint about anti-Israel bias in Sharon death reporting

I have had the following response from the BBC to my complaint about the anti-Israel bias in their TV News coverage on 11 January (this is verbatim - I have left in their spelling errors):

Thank you for contacting us regarding BBC News broadcast 11 January.

I understand you feel a report about the death of Ariel Sharon was biased. I fully appreciate your feedback on this matter and have reviewed the report due to your concerns.

The broadcast you refer to took an in depth look at the life and career of Ariel Sharon. It reported on a number of different views from both Palestinians and Israelis on this very divisive figure. The report did include mention of him pulling Israeli settlers and soldiers from Palestinian Gaza, a move for whicjh he was condemned by many of his old allies.

Impartiality is the cornerstone of all our news and current affairs output and we ensure all our correspondents and production teams are aware of this to help us deliver fair and balanced coverage for all the stories we report. We seek neither to denigrate nor promote any particular view, rather we present the relevant facts and allow our audience to make up their own minds based on them.

Nevertheless, I do appreciate you feel strongly regarding this, and as we’re guided by feedback such as yours, I’d like to assure you that I’ve registered your comments on our audience log. This is a report of audience feedback that’s compiled daily and made available to staff across the BBC, including members of the BBC Executive Board, channel controllers and other senior managers.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.

Kind Regards

Michelle McGahan

BBC Complaints www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

Note that the response provides no example of any non-negative things said in the report about either Sharon or Israel generally (the coverage was universally critical of both Sharon and Israel) nor about the blood libels it propagated.