15 Spring-Summer 2017 Division responsible for the item complained of to make any representations …..” The Head of the ECU went on to say that he had received representations from the BBC’s Jerusalem Bureau and the BBC correspondent, which had caused him to change his initial view that the item had been misleading in one respect. He was now not intending to uphold the complaint. The substantive Stage 2 finding was eventually issued six months after the complainant had first written to the ECU and almost two years after he had initially lodged the complaint. The complainant challenged this finding within the timescale he had been provided. He heard nothing, and five months later wrote to the ECU inquiring what had happened. The Head of the ECU responded: “I must apologize profusely for my long silence. An office move in July caused some disruption, and it appears that our correspondence was one of the casualties of it. I have now retrieved the papers, and am reviewing the issues and arguments afresh. ….” The Head of the ECU wrote again to the complainant nearly four weeks later advising that he remained of the view that the complaint should not be upheld. He again apologized for the delays that had beset the process. Eventually and exceptionally, the Editorial Standards Committee of the BBC Trust (ESC) upheld the complaint some five months later,19 finding that the report was not duly accurate and was not duly impartial. They also upheld a complaint of undue delay in the handling of the complaint. However, it appears that no correction of the original report was ever made. In another case,20 a BBC television news report by Orla Guerin during the Protective Edge operation in 2015, opened with the words: “Israel’s big guns, pounding Gaza again today. Israel calls this Operation Protective Edge, but this massive assault has now killed more than 1,300 Palestinians – the vast majority of them civilians.” This theme was constantly repeated in the BBC’s coverage of the operation and was a major reason for the highest-ever recorded number of antisemitic incidents in the UK during this period.21 The complainant pointed out that it was not accurate and impartial to say that the vast majority of Palestinian casualties were civilians, when there was substantial evidence that nearly half of them were terrorists.22 The BBC rejected the complaint and the ESC refused to consider an appeal, on the ground that it had no reasonable prospect of success. The ESC “agreed that the adjective ‘vast’ had not been an appropriate adjective to use” but “judged that the difference between ‘substantial’ and ‘vast’ in this context was not so significant as to amount to a material inaccuracy 19. In accordance with its standard procedure, the decision was reached at an earlier meeting of the Editorial Standards Committee of the BBC Trust, but there was a further delay before it was written up, finally approved and published. 20. Editorial Standards Findings: Appeals to the Trust and other editorial issues considered by the Editorial Standards Committee March, June & July 2015, 58, available at downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/ esc_bulletins/2015/june_july.pdf (last visited Feb.17, 2017). 21. Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism, Feb. 2015, §151 available at http://www. antisemitism.org.uk/wp-content/themes/PCAA/ images/4189_PCAA_Antisemitism%20Report_spreads_v9%20 REPRO-DPS_FOR%20WEB_v3.pdf (last visited Feb. 17, 2017). 22. See Annex to The 2014 Gaza Conflict – Factual and Legal Aspects, May 2015, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, available at http://mfa.gov.il/ProtectiveEdge/Documents/ PalestinianFatalities.pdf (last visited Feb. 17, 2017); Jodi Rudoren Civilian or Not? New Fight in Tallying the Dead from the Gaza Conflict, N. Y. TIMES, Aug. 5, 2014 available at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/world/ middleeast/civilian-or-not-new-fight-in-tallying-the-deadfrom-the-gaza-conflict.html?_r=0 (last visited Feb. 17, 2017); Reporting of Casualties in Gaza, CAMERA, July 13, 2014, available at http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_ context=2&x_outlet=118&x_article=2762 (last visited Feb. 17, 2017); Anthony Reuben, Caution needed with Gaza casualty figures, BBC, Aug. 11, 2014, available at http:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28688179 (last visited Feb. 17, 2017); Lenny Ben-David, Gazan Casualties: How Many and Who They Were, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 2015 available at http://jcpa.org/casualties-gazawar/#sthash.KvyEUG6n.dpuf (last visited Feb. 17, 2017); Additional findings in the examination of the names of Palestinians killed in Operation Protective Edge – Part Eight, Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Dec. 29, 2014, available at http://www.terrorisminfo.org.il/Data/articles/Art_20753/E_200_14_172393803. pdf (last visited Feb. 17, 2017); org/2014/07/13/bbc-watchuncovers-the-sources-of-jeremy-bowens-cited-casualtyfigures/ (last visited Feb. 17, 2017); Hamas Interior Ministry to Social Media Activists: Always Call the Dead 'Innocent Civilians,' Don't Post Photos of Rockets Being Fired from Civilian Population Centers, The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) Special Dispatch No. 5799, available at http://www.memri.org/report/ en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8076.htma (last visited Feb. 17, 2017); War of the Casualties, Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Aug. 6, 2014. http://www.terrorisminfo.org.il/data/articles/Art_20698/E_140_14_976270999. pdf (last visited Feb. 17, 2017).
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