BBC upholds complaint against Jeremy Paxman

The Jewish Chronicle reports on a decision by the BBC to uphold a complaint against Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman for an edition of Newsnight broadcast on February 14th 2011. The complaint concerned Paxman’s failure to challenge claims made by Louise Ellman MP, accusing Hamas of using children as suicide bombers.

Ellman was being interviewed alongside Michael Morpurgo about Morpurgo’s documentary on the children of Israel and Gaza.
 
On the programme, Ellman stated, “The problem is Hamas, who use these children as human shields, who give the children explosives, or sometimes force them to have explosive belts, and send them to blow up Israeli civilians.

She later commented,

“How can they meet, and how can we be without a barrier, when Hamas are sending those very children with their explosive belts across to kill Israeli children and Israeli civilians? All of that has to stop, and nobody is entirely innocent.”

Director of the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit, Andy Bell, in response to complaints raised against Paxman stated,

“The most recent instance we could identify of a suicide bombing by a child (in the sense of someone under the age of 18 ) in which Hamas was implicated was the bombing carried out by the 17 year-old Khamis Gerwan in 2003.

“It may well be that Mrs Ellman had in mind instances which dated back to 2003 or earlier, but she spoke in the present tense, and in terms which gave the impression that the use of child suicide-bombers by Hamas was a key consideration in the current situation.”

Bell admitted and apologised for the “lapse in editorial standards”.

Earlier this month, the Lords Select Committee on Communications published a report appraising the BBC Trust’s governance and regulation procedures. Part of the report called for Ofcom to have a role in regulating impartiality and accuracy in BBC broadcasting. Currently, Ofcom has no jurisdiction in regulating impartiality and accuracy in BBC public service broadcasting content.