BBC refuses to address complaint that it failed to cover the killing of Israeli child

On 22 August I made a formal complaint to the BBC (and also Sky News) about their failure to report on the main TV News the Hamas killing of 4-year-old Israeli child Daniel Tragerman (as covered in my story here). Here is the exact text of my complaint to the BBC:

BBC News tonight has failed to cover the very important story of an Israeli child (4-year-old Daniel Tragerman) who was killed in Israel by a Hamas rocket fired from a UN School in Gaza. BBC News has had something of an obsession with (often inaccurate) stories of children "killed from Israeli strikes on UN Schools". Yet now you are no longer interested in dead children and UN Schools associated with Gaza, even on a relatively quiet UK news day - not even in the tickertape headlines. For more details see my report here: http://edgar1981.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/so-dead-children-associated-with-un.html

I have now had a response from the BBC (see below). As you can see they have completely ignored my specific complaint and have instead sent a boilerplate response that presumably they send to all people who they classify as 'complaining of anti-Israel bias'. Isn't nice to know that the hundreds of millions of pounds that the BBC receives annually from tax payers is not able to stretch to responding to a serious complaint such as this (although the BBC did manage to find £12 million to send 272 staff to Brazil for the World Cup final). The response is actually a very weak defence anyway of their anti-Israel bias because although they say they have mentioned all the kind of things (such as Hamas use of human shields) which presumably people have accused them of ignoring, they only provide two links to back this up. They do not address the fact that the BBC's entire TV coverage was dominated with the Hamas perspective.

Dear Mr Davidson

Thank you for contacting us about the recent escalation in violence in Gaza and Israel. We have received a wide range of feedback about our coverage of this story across our television and radio programmes and the BBC News website. In order to use our TV licence fee resources efficiently, this response aims to answer the key concerns, but we apologise in advance if it doesn’t address your specific points in the manner you would prefer.

BBC News has reported extensively on the series of rocket attacks launched by Hamas and other Palestinian militants into southern and central Israel in recent weeks. We have reported on the civilian injuries and casualties, destruction and disruption caused by the attacks in towns near Gaza, such as Ashkelon and Sderot. We have also reported on the range and capability of Hamas’ arsenal, emphasising that major urban areas like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are also under threat from attacks.

During our coverage of Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza we have reported on efforts made by the Israel Defense Forces seeking to minimise civilian causalities. We have detailed the prior warnings given to Palestinian civilians and have reflected Israel’s claims that Hamas hide weapons in civilian areas and employ non-militants as human shields:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28245343

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28252155

BBC News has also examined the cause of the conflict, as seen by each side, including Hamas’ hostility to the state of Israel. We believe we have reported on these issues in a fair and impartial manner.

Please be assured we raised your concerns with senior editorial staff at BBC News.

Kind Regards

BBC Complaints

www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

Incidentally, Sky News never responded to my complaint other than with an automated  "Thank you for your comment".