"BBC Watch" Launched To Monitor BBC's Coverage Of Israel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
 Hadar Sela, Managing Editor
hadarsela@bbcwatch.org

'BBC WATCH' LAUNCHED TO MONITOR BBC’S COVERAGE OF ISRAEL FOR ACCURACY AND IMPARTIALITY

Repeated failure by the BBC to adhere to its own editorial guidelines prompts the need for comprehensive media monitoring. 

New York, USA and Jerusalem, Israel – October 10th, 2012 - Recognising the importance of the role played by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in providing information and shaping world-wide opinion, a new web site has been launched which will monitor BBC coverage of Israel. 

The new site, a sister project of CiF Watch (founded in 2009 to monitor the Guardian's 'Comment is Free' site) with the independent support of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting (CAMERA), will provide comprehensive monitoring of the BBC’s coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict to ensure adherence to the BBC’s own editorial guidelines.

The BBC is the largest broadcasting organisation in the world today - and hence one of the most influential. BBC officials frequently promote the organisation as being the most trusted media outlet in the world, with a reputation for supplying independent information. However, the BBC's coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict has long been seen a source of contention to many, with severe criticism of its standards of accuracy and impartiality being voiced. 

"Two organisations which formerly monitored BBC output – 'Just Journalism' and Trevor Asserson's ‘BBC Watch’ website - have ceased operations in recent years, exacerbating the need for close and regular monitoring of the world's most influential broadcaster" explained Hadar Sela, Managing Editor of the new BBC Watch site."BBC Watch will seek to build upon and develop the work already done by those organisations in order to continue the monitoring of BBC output on the subject of Israel and to examine the broadcaster’s adherence to its legal obligation to produce accurate and impartial reporting as a service to its funding public."

Adam Levick, Managing Editor of CiF Watch, added "Our already extensive experience of media monitoring shows that it is possible to curb the spread of inaccurate information and distortions through fact-checking, provision of complimentary information and the correction of errors at source. Obviously, in the case of an organisation as widely viewed, heard and trusted as the BBC, it is vital that misinformation be corrected before it spreads world-wide."

The new website can be accessed at www.bbcwatch.org. 

Updates can be received via Twitter @bbcwatch and Facebook at www.facebook.com/bbcwatch.

BBC Watch welcomes public participation in alerting us to BBC errors or distortions. Please contact us atcontactus@bbcwatch.org.

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