Category: 91Èȱ¬
Date: 02.05.2006
Printable version
The Board of Governors has published today the Independent Panel Report into the impartiality of 91Èȱ¬ coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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In October 2005 the Governors commissioned the panel, chaired by Sir Quentin Thomas, to "assess the impartiality of 91Èȱ¬ news and current affairs coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with particular regard to accuracy, fairness, context, balance and bias, actual or perceived".
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The panel's review covered the 91Èȱ¬'s UK domestic public service output only.
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The Governors received the panel's report at their Board meeting last week and welcomed its finding of no deliberate or systematic bias.
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The Independent Panel concludes that the evidence showing that most viewers and listeners, at least within the UK, regard the 91Èȱ¬ as unbiased presents a different challenge: the audience say they do not understand the conflict and, perhaps for that reason, do not see it as important or interesting.
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The Independent Panel takes the view that impartiality also requires a full and fair account and in that regard found the 91Èȱ¬'s coverage to be inconsistent, not always providing a complete picture and in that sense misleading.
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The panel makes several recommendations to enhance the 91Èȱ¬'s coverage, particularly to provide licence fee payers with greater context and assist their understanding of the complexities of the conflict.
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Sir Quentin Thomas says in his introductory statement: "What the 91Èȱ¬ does now is good for the most part; some of it very good.
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"But, it could and should do better to meet the gold standard which it sets itself in its best programmes."
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The Board has passed the Independent Panel's report to 91Èȱ¬ management and requested their response before reaching its own conclusions.
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Once the Governors have considered management's response - to be submitted at the June Board meeting - and approved recommendations for implementation, the Board will publish it with their own conclusions.
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Speaking on behalf of the Board of Governors, Chairman Michael Grade said: "The Governors are grateful to Sir Quentin Thomas and his colleagues.
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"The Independent Panel's report is a substantial and serious piece of work and so its central finding of no deliberate or systematic bias is all the more reassuring.
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"The panel found much to praise, but it also identified some shortcomings in the 91Èȱ¬'s coverage.
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"We have asked 91Èȱ¬ management to consider the panel's recommendations and respond to us at our June Board meeting.
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"We have asked that management's response to the recommendations about editorial organisation be set in the context of the Neil Report which the Governors endorsed in full in 2004."
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Michael Grade also said that:
"The 91Èȱ¬ must continually demonstrate its efforts to meet the highest editorial standards if it is to retain the high levels of public trust in its output.
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"It is a measure of the 91Èȱ¬'s commitment to that aim that its management team and journalists willingly co-operate with independent reviews such as these.
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"Indeed, the 91Èȱ¬'s impartiality is the most important safeguard of its editorial independence.
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"The Governors are grateful to the panel members for reviewing the 91Èȱ¬'s performance in this highly charged area of news coverage.
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"Their contribution will assist the 91Èȱ¬ in providing the best possible news coverage for licence fee payers."
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Notes to Editors
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Members of the Independent Panel:
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Sir Quentin Thomas CB (chairman): President of the British Board of Film Classification and formerly Political Director in the Northern Ireland Office, with other posts in the Cabinet Office and the 91Èȱ¬ Office
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Lord Eames: Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland
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Stewart Purvis: Professor of Television Journalism, City University; former Editor-in-Chief and Chief Executive, ITN
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Philip Stephens: Associate Editor and Columnist, Financial Times
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Dr Elizabeth Vallance JP: former Head, Department of Politics, Queen Mary College, University of London; Chair of Council, Institute of Education; Committee on Standards in Public Life; Author
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The Independent Panel's report - together with appendices, which include the output analysis carried out by Loughborough University and audience research carried out by Opinion Leader Research - is available in full on www.bbcgovernors.co.uk.
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This is the second impartiality review commissioned by the Board of Governors under its new arrangements independent from 91Èȱ¬ management.
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The first, published in January 2005, was about the 91Èȱ¬'s coverage of European Issues.
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91Èȱ¬ Governance Unit
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