Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

BBC Media Bias Against Iran Investigated

CampaignIran | 05.01.2007 15:25 | Anti-militarism

The BBC and Ofcom, the regulator for the UK communications industries, will investigate alleged bias by the BBC following a large number of complaints received following a panel discussion on Iran broadcast on Radio 4 this week.

The programme, Decision Time broadcast on 3rd January, was looking at the political current situation in Iran and took as its starting point that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. The question of what should be done to stop Iran was put to an invited panel of experts, none of whom challenged the unproven allegation that Iran has a nuclear weaponisation programme. The panel, comprising Sir Malcolm Rifkin, Sir Jeremy, Greenstock, Sir Steven Wall, Reuel Marc Gerecth (ex CIA adviser) and George Pascoe-Watson (political editor of the Sun) were all in favour of punitive action against Iran, ranging from sanctions to military intervention.

Campaign Iran, an international campaign group opposed to sanctions and military intervention in Iran, requested a right of reply to correct the one-sided nature of the programme, but this was refused and the matter passed to the BBC complaints department and Ofcom. Peter Mulligan, producer of Decision Time, said that the decision not to include anyone with an opposing point of view was “not an oversight” but declined to say more pending the findings of the BBC and Ofcom investigations.

Professor Abbas Edalat of Campaign Iran, said today:
“An impression is being created that by enriching uranium Iran is defying the reasonable demands made by the rest of the world. In fact Iran is exercising its legal and inalienable right to pursue civilian nuclear technology. There is no evidence whatsoever that Iran has any nuclear weapons programme. The recent Resolution, forced through the by UN Security Council, is helping to create a false impression that Iran is in breach of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This false impression is being reinforced by the mainstream media and by failing to invite panelist from both sides of the argument Nick Robinsons’ Decision Time was in clear breach Section 7 of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code requiring impartiality.

During the build-up to the invasion of Iraq, the media cravenly failed to adequately challenge the ‘conventional wisdom’ that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. We must be vigilant against similar inaccuracies being used to prepare the path for intervention against Iran, and we call on Ofcom and the BBC to safeguard the integrity and accuracy of our press and to ensure balanced reporting on Iran in the future.

To add your complaint visit  http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

For more information visit www.campaigniran.org
Contact: Professor Edalat on 0207 2292375
Press Office: 0797163005 or 07799650791

CampaignIran
- e-mail: stefan@campaigniran.org
- Homepage: http://www.campaigniran.org

Comments

Display the following 11 comments

  1. boom — sceptic
  2. fuk — Whatda
  3. Anyone who thinks — septic
  4. why? — free
  5. Knowing they are making a Bomb — sceptic
  6. never going to happen — Oli
  7. Sceptic Media — Iran is the next small fish
  8. Israeli General urges US-Israel strike against Iran — Michael Carmichael
  9. Everyone Welcome — ...
  10. Israel 'has plan for nuclear strike on Iran' — Marie Woolf (repost)
  11. bsbc — krs
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech