How Israel pressures BBC into changing headlines
Amena Saleem Media Watch 19 November 2015
Before (left) and after: a BBC headline was changed to obscure the fact
Israeli killed a Palestinian in cold blood. (Screenshots by Media Lens)
In the early hours of 12 November, approximately two dozen Israeli gunmen,
one disguised as a pregnant Palestinian woman, others wearing fake beards,
invaded a hospital in Hebron and gunned down a 28-year-old man.
In a rare burst of reporting on an Israeli atrocity, the BBC ran an article
on its website headlined: "Israelis shoot dead Palestinian in Hebron
hospital raid."
It was a straightforward headline which summed up the story. But later in
the day, a different headline appeared above the report, reading: "Israelis
in disguise raid Hebron hospital, seizing suspect."
As is standard practice for the BBC, the amendment was not noted at the
bottom of the page, so newcomers to the story would not have known the
headline had been altered.
It was spotted, however, by the watchdog Media Lens, which posted a
screengrab of the two headlines on its Facebook page, asking: "What
happened? Pro-Israeli flak? Bending to pro-Israeli pressure?"
These questions are even more pertinent in the light of a documented
exchange which took place between the BBC, the Israeli Government Press
Office (GPO) and the Israeli embassy in London at the beginning of October
about another of the broadcaster's headlines.
Headline changes
The Times of Israel reported then on Israeli fury sparked by the 4 October
BBC Online headline "Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills
two."
The headline is factually correct, but offense was caused to Israel's PR
machine because the killing of 19-year-old Muhannad Halabi took precedence
in the headline over the slaying of two Israelis.
The Times of Israel wrote: "The [Israeli] Government Press Office on Sunday
warned the BBC it could face sanctions for running a news headline
highlighting the death of the Palestinian terrorist shot by the police
Saturday after fatally stabbing two Israelis, rather than the attack
itself."
The website added that a "harshly worded letter was sent to Richard Palmer,
the head of the BBC Bureau in Israel, by the head of the GPO," and that "the
Israeli Embassy in London asked the network to change the headline."
Whatever the GPO's harsh words were, they appear to have been enough to
scare the BBC into changing the headline, which went through three
alterations - documented by the Zionist lobby group BBC Watch - before it
met with the satisfaction of the Israeli embassy and the Israeli GPO.
The Israeli-approved headline ran: "Jerusalem: Palestinian kills two
Israelis in Old City."
(This headline has since been changed again, apparently unnoticed by either
the Israeli embassy or the GPO, to "Israelis killed in Jerusalem,
Palestinians banned from Old City.")
In its report of 4 October, The Times of Israel noted: "According to a GPO
official, Israel expects an official apology from the network, and said the
office was considering annulling the press cards of BBC journalists, a
decision that if implemented would not allow the network to continue
operating in Israel."
This is not an idle threat, and BBC staff know it.
"A very evil light"
In 2003, the Israeli government severed ties with the corporation, accusing
it of the "worst of Nazi propaganda" after it broadcast the documentary
Israel's Secret Weapon which shed light on the country's nuclear and
chemical arsenal.
Danny Seaman, then head of the Israeli GPO, said it was "because of what we
feel to be a bias and an anti-Israel line . that portray Israel in a very
evil light." Seaman said government officials would no longer help BBC
journalists get expedited press accreditation.
When Orla Guerin, then a BBC Middle East correspondent, questioned Israel's
repressive attitude towards the corporation, she too found herself in the
Israeli government's line of fire.
In an interview with the London Evening Standard in 2003, she said, "How can
you still be a democracy and try to harass the press? This is not how a
democracy behaves."
Guerin was later pulled from the Middle East, the decision being announced
just days after the BBC's director general at the time, Mark Thompson,
returned from a visit to Israel in 2005 where he met with then Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon.
Influence
Journalist Keith Dovkants, writing in the London Evening Standard in 2012,
noted that "on [Thompson's] return to London the corporation instituted the
Middle East reporting regime that exists today and which, many believe,
influenced the decision to refuse to show the charity aid appeal for Gaza."
This is a reference to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal of January
2009, which was aired by major television channels to raise money for Gaza
as another Israeli massacre there came to an end. But the BBC, in an
unprecedented move, refused to show it.
Arthur Neslen, a journalist who worked at the BBC for four years, told me:
"They take Israeli calls very seriously, and critical stories about Israel
get shot down through official pressure and the fear of official pressure.
These are very powerful lobbyists - people know their careers can be
broken."
Swedish academic and media expert Leon Barkho told Dovkants: "I have
investigated this and I am convinced [BBC] policy is dictated from the top
because of the enormous sensitivity . The message is: don't antagonize the
Israelis."
And so the questions asked by Media Lens when the BBC amends a headline to
soften public perception of an Israeli crime - "What happened? Pro-Israeli
flack? Bending to pro-Israeli pressure?" - answer themselves.
It is a sad state of affairs for a news organization which prides itself as
a leader in global journalism. BBC journalists and editors, it would seem,
sit at their desks in London and cower in fear at the thought of an angry
phone call from the Israeli embassy.
They let us all down, but, most of all, they let down the Palestinian
people, whose cry for freedom goes unheard at BBC Broadcasting House,
drowned out by the undemocratic machinations of the Israeli PR machine.
Tags
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How Israel pressures BBC into changing headlines
Amena Saleem Media Watch 19 November 2015
Before (left) and after: a BBC headline was changed to obscure the fact
Israeli killed a Palestinian in cold blood. (Screenshots by Media Lens)
In the early hours of 12 November, approximately two dozen Israeli gunmen,
one disguised as a pregnant Palestinian woman, others wearing fake beards,
invaded a hospital in Hebron and gunned down a 28-year-old man.
In a rare burst of reporting on an Israeli atrocity, the BBC ran an article
on its website headlined: "Israelis shoot dead Palestinian in Hebron
hospital raid."
It was a straightforward headline which summed up the story. But later in
the day, a different headline appeared above the report, reading: "Israelis
in disguise raid Hebron hospital, seizing suspect."
As is standard practice for the BBC, the amendment was not noted at the
bottom of the page, so newcomers to the story would not have known the
headline had been altered.
It was spotted, however, by the watchdog Media Lens, which posted a
screengrab of the two headlines on its Facebook page, asking: "What
happened? Pro-Israeli flak? Bending to pro-Israeli pressure?"
These questions are even more pertinent in the light of a documented
exchange which took place between the BBC, the Israeli Government Press
Office (GPO) and the Israeli embassy in London at the beginning of October
about another of the broadcaster's headlines.
Headline changes
The Times of Israel reported then on Israeli fury sparked by the 4 October
BBC Online headline "Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills
two."
The headline is factually correct, but offense was caused to Israel's PR
machine because the killing of 19-year-old Muhannad Halabi took precedence
in the headline over the slaying of two Israelis.
The Times of Israel wrote: "The [Israeli] Government Press Office on Sunday
warned the BBC it could face sanctions for running a news headline
highlighting the death of the Palestinian terrorist shot by the police
Saturday after fatally stabbing two Israelis, rather than the attack
itself."
The website added that a "harshly worded letter was sent to Richard Palmer,
the head of the BBC Bureau in Israel, by the head of the GPO," and that "the
Israeli Embassy in London asked the network to change the headline."
Whatever the GPO's harsh words were, they appear to have been enough to
scare the BBC into changing the headline, which went through three
alterations - documented by the Zionist lobby group BBC Watch - before it
met with the satisfaction of the Israeli embassy and the Israeli GPO.
The Israeli-approved headline ran: "Jerusalem: Palestinian kills two
Israelis in Old City."
(This headline has since been changed again, apparently unnoticed by either
the Israeli embassy or the GPO, to "Israelis killed in Jerusalem,
Palestinians banned from Old City.")
In its report of 4 October, The Times of Israel noted: "According to a GPO
official, Israel expects an official apology from the network, and said the
office was considering annulling the press cards of BBC journalists, a
decision that if implemented would not allow the network to continue
operating in Israel."
This is not an idle threat, and BBC staff know it.
"A very evil light"
In 2003, the Israeli government severed ties with the corporation, accusing
it of the "worst of Nazi propaganda" after it broadcast the documentary
Israel's Secret Weapon which shed light on the country's nuclear and
chemical arsenal.
Danny Seaman, then head of the Israeli GPO, said it was "because of what we
feel to be a bias and an anti-Israel line . that portray Israel in a very
evil light." Seaman said government officials would no longer help BBC
journalists get expedited press accreditation.
When Orla Guerin, then a BBC Middle East correspondent, questioned Israel's
repressive attitude towards the corporation, she too found herself in the
Israeli government's line of fire.
In an interview with the London Evening Standard in 2003, she said, "How can
you still be a democracy and try to harass the press? This is not how a
democracy behaves."
Guerin was later pulled from the Middle East, the decision being announced
just days after the BBC's director general at the time, Mark Thompson,
returned from a visit to Israel in 2005 where he met with then Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon.
Influence
Journalist Keith Dovkants, writing in the London Evening Standard in 2012,
noted that "on [Thompson's] return to London the corporation instituted the
Middle East reporting regime that exists today and which, many believe,
influenced the decision to refuse to show the charity aid appeal for Gaza."
This is a reference to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal of January
2009, which was aired by major television channels to raise money for Gaza
as another Israeli massacre there came to an end. But the BBC, in an
unprecedented move, refused to show it.
Arthur Neslen, a journalist who worked at the BBC for four years, told me:
"They take Israeli calls very seriously, and critical stories about Israel
get shot down through official pressure and the fear of official pressure.
These are very powerful lobbyists - people know their careers can be
broken."
Swedish academic and media expert Leon Barkho told Dovkants: "I have
investigated this and I am convinced [BBC] policy is dictated from the top
because of the enormous sensitivity . The message is: don't antagonize the
Israelis."
And so the questions asked by Media Lens when the BBC amends a headline to
soften public perception of an Israeli crime - "What happened? Pro-Israeli
flack? Bending to pro-Israeli pressure?" - answer themselves.
It is a sad state of affairs for a news organization which prides itself as
a leader in global journalism. BBC journalists and editors, it would seem,
sit at their desks in London and cower in fear at the thought of an angry
phone call from the Israeli embassy.
They let us all down, but, most of all, they let down the Palestinian
people, whose cry for freedom goes unheard at BBC Broadcasting House,
drowned out by the undemocratic machinations of the Israeli PR machine.
From The Electronic Enfitada
