A campaigning couple have won their battle to have several complaints of anti-Israel bias upheld by the BBC – the first such successful complaint in more than a year.
A campaigning couple have won their battle to have several complaints of anti-Israel bias upheld by the BBC – the first such successful complaint in more than a year.
Lynette and Michael Ordman were infuriated by a BBC2 programme aired on 7 June 2003, entitled Dan Cruickshank on the Road to Armageddon.
The 90-minute documentary centred on exploring the dangers posed to architectural treasures by the conflict.
But after the Ordmans, from Stanmore, took their protest to the programme complaints unit and then to the governor’s complaints committee, the BBC acknowledged the programme had contained both factual errors and misleading footage.
In one section about the 2002 siege of the church of the nativity in Bethlehem, the BBC admitted it had given the untrue impression an IDF tank had fired a tank shell at the church. BBC also failed to point out the destruction to parts of the church committed by the PLO activits.
Later, presenter Cruikshank theorised on the settler’s methods of land acquisition, a supposition the BBC agreed he was not qualified to make.
The show also “failed to provide a clear delineation of the timeframe of reports of damage to historic sites”, meaning that Arab destruction of Jerusalem’s Jewish quarter between 1948 and 1967 was not included.
Lynette Ordman said: “We’re obviously very pleased about it. I want to encourage other people to write and phone the BBC. They only need 20 people to phone after a programme to take it to the next stage.
“People should start realising the BBC has got a charter that says it has to be fair and impartial, and we have a right to complain because we are all license payers.”
Lynette and Michael Ordman were infuriated by a BBC2 programme aired on 7 June 2003, entitled Dan Cruickshank on the Road to Armageddon.
The 90-minute documentary centred on exploring the dangers posed to architectural treasures by the conflict.
But after the Ordmans, from Stanmore, took their protest to the programme complaints unit and then to the governor’s complaints committee, the BBC acknowledged the programme had contained both factual errors and misleading footage.
In one section about the 2002 siege of the church of the nativity in Bethlehem, the BBC admitted it had given the untrue impression an IDF tank had fired a tank shell at the church. BBC also failed to point out the destruction to parts of the church committed by the PLO activits.
Later, presenter Cruikshank theorised on the settler’s methods of land acquisition, a supposition the BBC agreed he was not qualified to make.
The show also “failed to provide a clear delineation of the timeframe of reports of damage to historic sites”, meaning that Arab destruction of Jerusalem’s Jewish quarter between 1948 and 1967 was not included.
Lynette Ordman said: “We’re obviously very pleased about it. I want to encourage other people to write and phone the BBC. They only need 20 people to phone after a programme to take it to the next stage.
“People should start realising the BBC has got a charter that says it has to be fair and impartial, and we have a right to complain because we are all license payers.”
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