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BBC to issue global apology for documentaries that broke rules

Ian Burnell | London | Feb 11

The Independent - Independent revealed programmes were made by third-party in pay of governments and firms

The BBC will today apologise to an estimated 74 million people around the world for a news fixing scandal, exposed by The Independent, in which it broadcast documentaries made by a London TV company that was earning millions of pounds from PR clients which it featured in its programming. (Image BBC entrance)

BBC World News viewers from Kuala Lumpur to Khartoum and Bangkok to Buenos Aires will watch the remarkable broadcast, available in 295 million homes, 1.7 million hotel rooms, 81 cruise ships, 46 airlines and on 35 mobile phone platforms, at four different times, staged in order to reach audiences in different time zones. The BBC will apologise for breaking "rules aimed at protecting our editorial integrity".

The Independent exposed last year in an investigation into the global television news industry how the BBC paid nominal fees of as little as £1 for programmes made by FBC Media (UK), whose PR client list included foreign governments and multinational companies. The company made eight pieces for the BBC about Malaysia while failing to declare it was paid £17m by the Malaysian government for "global strategic communications". The programmes included positive coverage of Malaysia's controversial palm oil industry.

The BBC also used FBC to make a documentary about the spring uprising in Egypt without knowing the firm was paid to do PR work for the regime of former dictator Hosni Mubarak.


Michael Collins February 11, 2012 - 2:14am
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( categories: AgonistWire | United Kingdom )

... but The Independent doth protest too much

Just before The Independent took it's victory lap for nailing BBC, the paper ran this scandalous headline.

Assad's slaughter of the innocents -- Newborn babies are among the latest victims of the Syrian government's brutal assault on Homs

The Independent Feb 9

...clear evidence emerged that his indiscriminate shelling of the restive town had started claiming innocent victims, including at least 18 premature babies and three entire families.

The Syrian government are certainly not innocents and it has killed a few, no doubt. But now it's a slaughter of babies. That sounds awfully familiar. It should for those of us who remember the run up to Gulf War I. Recall that passionate speech about Iraqi troops throwing babies out of incubators after conquering Kuwait. More babies. Of course, the story was a total fabrication.

Kuwaiti Babies Torn from Incubators by Iraqi Invaders Oct 10, 1990

"I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital," Nayirah said. "While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where . . . babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die." ... [The daughter of the Kuwaiti ambssador to the United States, Nayirah was not in Kuwait when Iraq invaded. The testimony was a lie. It was widely covered by U.S. media, thanks to the story creators PR firm Hill & Knowlton] PRWatch

But maybe that Syrian story is true. What about the pictures? They started showing up in the summer and were supposedly provided by those on the scene. Forty babies died in a Syrian government attack on the city of Hama where the government blew up hospital generators causing the deaths. The photograph here at an anti Syrian government website in July 2011 sure looks like an exact match for this photograph from an Egyptian newspaper, al Badil, in April 2007. This information comes from the folks at ei Blogs Media Watch.

Maybe I'm just being cynical. Just because dead babies are a time honored tradition of war propagandists, just because they were used by the neocons to justify Gulf War I, and just because dead Syrian babies showed up in the summer and got hauled out now as the enterprise is tanking - well, that is probably no reason to doubt The Independent. But I must. The paper is a flack for the junior partner in the failed Empire Project.
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Michael Collins February 11, 2012 - 3:45am
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Now that surprises me,

the BBC and The Guardian doesn't. I've noticed things in The Independent opinion/comment/columnist section but not the news section.

Tina February 11, 2012 - 9:26am
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The case being made here is...

...circumstantial association with a potential meme. The notion that The Independent is distributing biased coverage isn't terribly strong - they sourced the assertion (making it clear that it was secondary) and immediately followed it with assertions to the contrary from the other side. Any reasonable reader can weigh and evaluate the likely veracity of the description.

"In combat one should be very suspicious of painless moral choices. When you are confronted with a seemingly painless moral choice, the odds are that you haven't looked deeply enough." ~ Karl Marlantes

JustPlainDave February 11, 2012 - 11:24am
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It's all about the babies

This is a mixed metaphor. It combines the WWI themes that "the Huns" speared babies on their bayonets and the Hun as heathen through a speared baby angel. Same as it ever was...

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Send the UN to The Hague

Michael Collins February 12, 2012 - 12:51am
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The Syrian govt certainly not innocents,have killed a few

indeed.


The origin of the universe has not as yet been shown to be a conspiracy theory

nymole February 11, 2012 - 8:57pm
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Man, when you can't trust the Beeb

You see this crap all the time in the States, but the Beeb?

Actor 212 February 11, 2012 - 8:45am
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Diogenes

I would like a serious English language news outlet to follow on a regular basis in addition to McClatchy. The BBC was useful for a while but Blair inserted his people. The Independent and Guardian put up a good front but scratch the surface and they look like gate keepers. And the NYT got Bush reelected by sitting on the phone tapping story until months after the election.

Any suggestions?
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Send the UN to The Hague

Michael Collins February 11, 2012 - 11:41pm
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Knight Ridder

Check them out. We don't have a K-R paper around NYC, but I recall a few of the true antiwar stories were broken by them (McClatchy is not bad either).

Actor 212 February 12, 2012 - 8:44am
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Knight-Ridder was acquired by McClatchy.

The coverage from Iraq that gave McClatchy the good rep was, as I understand it, largely Knight-Ridder folks.

"In combat one should be very suspicious of painless moral choices. When you are confronted with a seemingly painless moral choice, the odds are that you haven't looked deeply enough." ~ Karl Marlantes

JustPlainDave February 12, 2012 - 9:55am
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McClatchy link

This is the site - McClatchy Washington Bureau

They have been excellent on justice issues, including the mortgage fraud scandals.

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Send the UN to The Hague

Michael Collins February 13, 2012 - 5:51am
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Eight arrests as Murdoch 'throws staff to the wolves'

The Independent was essential for me to read during the first stages of Gulf War II- as were the BBC and the Guardian. It's been quite a while since anyone but Fisk was consistently worth reading for me.

Ah, well they are back now to their current true love , other Brit newspapers' corruption:

The Independent - Five senior 'Sun' journalists, two MoD staff and a police officer taken in dawn swoop as new front opens in bribery scandal


The origin of the universe has not as yet been shown to be a conspiracy theory

nymole February 11, 2012 - 8:52pm
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Excellent coverage;)

Thank you. From The Independent story linked above:

"The latest astonishing development, which came two days after the Leveson inquiry into press standards finished its first session, prompted fury among the newspaper's staff, amid allegations that those arrested had been "thrown to the wolves" in an effort to bolster the embattled News Corp empire, and, particularly, to rekindle its hopes of taking over BSkyB. The Independent

It's all about BSkyB at this point. Can't imagine who would have the ignorance to approve that deal or how News Corp can ever give up the desire. It's about $10 bil a year profit that News Corp gives up.

The UK has the most interesting press culture I've ever seen.
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Send the UN to The Hague

Michael Collins February 12, 2012 - 12:27am
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