Tag: BBC

UK: Savile took girls to Leeds General Infirmary Hospital

Jimmy Savile would regularly take teenage girls to a hospital block alone, a former porter has claimed.
Terry Pratt said the late Jim’ll Fix It star was frequently handed a key to the nurses’ accommodation building at Leeds General Infirmary during the late 1980s. Mr Pratt told the BBC that Savile would arrive at Leeds General Infirmary with the girls in the early hours of the morning and then leave before dawn.

He said: “He would go up and the lad on the desk would say ‘Here’s the key, Jim, make sure I get it back’. He’d take the key and would walk out and the two women would follow him towards the nurses’ home. He was going into a property he had no right to go into. He wasn’t a doctor and he wasn’t a nurse.”
Mr Pratt said he became suspicious when Savile began arriving in the middle of the night with different girls who seemed “star-struck” and were “not streetwise”.
But nobody questioned the late presenter’s behaviour at the time, he said, adding: “We looked at him as a sort of film star, a cult figure.”
Mr Pratt said the celebrity, who was a volunteer porter and fundraiser for the hospital, would make several late-night visits a month where he would ask for the key to the accommodation block, spend a few hours there and then leave at 5am.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said it was “shocked” by the claims surrounding Leeds General Infirmary and has vowed to help the Metropolitan Police with inquiries into the alleged abuse.
A spokesman for the trust said: “We continue to be shocked by each new allegation. It is important that they are investigated properly. Once again, we urge anybody who has any concerns to contact us so that we can pass information on to the police or to contact the police directly via the NSPCC helpline, 0808 800 5000.
“The trust is in contact with senior detectives from the Metropolitan Police and we have indicated our intention to help with their inquiries. If there are any issues which need to be addressed following the police investigation, then we will take action.”
Meanwhile, councillors in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, have called for his name to be immediately removed from the honour board for freemen of the borough until the Metropolitan Police concludes investigations.

Press Association

November 1, 2012
Broadcast Journalist, BBC Turkish Service

Job Ref. No 705031

Location London

Contract Type Fixed Term

Job Category: Journalism

Closing date for applications 1 December 2011

Department

BBC Turkish is a multi-platform department, providing news and information to Turkish speaking audiences in Turkey and around the world on Online, social media and TV seven days a week. It requires a number of Broadcast Journalists to work across the range of its output. Working under the supervision of Senior Broadcast Journalists, Broadcast Journalists produce accurate, informed and interesting news and programming to the highest possible standards. The role demands creativity and flexibility, as well as a genuine passion for explaining the world to our audiences. This position is offered on a 12 month attachment/fixed term contract basis and the salary will between £30,594 – £32,000pa.

Role

You will research, write, translate, edit or adapt items, stories or programme material for the BBC Turkish Service. You will find contributors and interviewees as well as other sources of material whilst maintaining professional journalistic standards. Alongside this, you will undertake pre and post production and studio work, live and pre-recorded as well as perform on air, conduct interviews and chair discussions.

Requirements

You will be fluent in written and spoken Turkish and have a good level of English with the ability to work effectively in both languages. You will have significant and recent experience as a journalist, with good knowledge of production techniques. The ability to write, adapt and translate with accuracy, clarity and style appropriate to differing audiences and forms of media is required. As well as this, you will have strong team working and highly developed communication skills, with the ability to build strong relationships with a range of people.

via BBC Careers – Job Advert.

October 31, 2011
Murdoch lawyer accused BBC of phone hacking vendetta

(Reuters) – A lawyer for Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers earlier this year accused the British Broadcasting Corporation of pursuing an investigation of alleged computer and phone hacking to “undermine” Murdoch’s bid to acquire full ownership of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

Julian Pike of the London law firm Farrer & Co, which also represents Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, sent a series of letters last March to the BBC expressing concerns at the British arm of Murdoch’s News Corporation that the BBC might have transgressed its commitment to impartiality for commercial or political reasons. The BBC denied this was the case.

The letters, whose full contents have not previously been reported, were sent in response to requests by journalists from the BBC newsmagazine Panorama to News Group for comment regarding alleged phone and computer hacking conducted by journalists for the Sunday tabloid News of the World.

Murdoch shut the paper last July amid a torrent of allegations about alleged ethical and legal lapses by its staff.

The Panorama program, headlined “Tabloid Hacks Exposed” focused on the alleged role of Murdoch journalists in employing “dark arts” – Fleet Street jargon for dubious and potentially illegal reporting tactics – and in particular allegations of “blagging” (jargon for pretending to be someone else) and computer and phone hacking at the News of the World.

Pike laid out News Group’s complaints about the BBC’s investigation in letters sent to Panorama in early March headed

“NOT FOR PUBLICATION & NOT FOR BROADCAST: STRICTLY PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL.”

In two letters, dated March 10 and 11, Pike suggested that the BBC might be pursuing the hacking story for business or political reasons rather than for journalistic motives.

Pike said that BBC Director General Mark Thompson had been “required to apologize” in November 2010 for adding his signature to a letter from a group of companies who were critical of News Corp’s bid to acquire the balance of shares in BSkyB which it did not already own.

In his March 10 letter, Pike noted that the BBC was planning to broadcast Panorama’s investigation at a time when the British government was actively considering Murdoch’s bid for BSkyB’s remaining shares. He noted that the BBC had an “obligation to avoid embroiling itself in a political and commercial battle that it should have nothing to do with.”

BSkyB is a principal competitor with the BBC in Britain.

In a lengthy letter sent to the BBC the following day, Pike said it had “not gone unnoticed” that the BBC, along with “certain other media organizations,” had been in “the vanguard of running a campaign against” News Corp regarding alleged News of the World phone hacking. Pike asserted that the BBC had “obvious political and commercial reasons” to use the phone hacking allegations “to attack our clients and undermine New (sic) Corp’s Sky bid.”

Pike said it was “quite apparent” that the program the BBC was preparing was “yet another attempt to undermine New Corp’s bid for Sky” (sic).

In the letter, Pike also accused the BBC of planning to take out of context an investigation by Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office which alleged that publications other than the News of the World, including The Observer, a Sunday newspaper which is affiliated with the Guardian daily, had also engaged in questionable or illegal reporting practices.

In response to a request for comment, the BBC told Reuters: “Panorama investigations always come from a point of public interest and operate within the BBC editorial guidelines and Ofcom’s code. This program was no different and…details of the phone hacking scandal has been widely reported by numerous media organizations. Any suggestion it was made to further the BBC’s own interests is utterly without foundation.”

A spokesperson for News International, Murdoch’s principal newspaper publishing company in Britain, said the company had no comment on Pike’s accusation that the BBC had pursued the phone hacking inquiry for ulterior motives.

However, the spokesperson noted that the company on October 14 had issued a statement acknowledging that its Management and Standards committee, supervising News International’s response to the phone hacking controversy, had agreed with Farrer & Co. that the law firm would “stand down” from representing Murdoch’s News Group properties in “current or future” lawsuits filed by alleged News of the World phone hacking victims.

At a hearing before a British parliamentary committee which has been investigating phone hacking, Pike acknowledged that in 2008 he became aware of documentary evidence contradicting public statements by Murdoch aides that phone hacking at the News of the World had been the work of a “single rogue reporter.”

Pike told the committee he did not believe he had an obligation as a lawyer “to go and report something that I see within a case where there might have been some criminal activity.”

In a report on his testimony and other aspects of his letters to the BBC, the Guardian last week reported that Pike had admitted to parliament that he knew public statements by News of the World executives about the rogue reporter were misleading when he sent a letter to the BBC threatening “successful” litigation for defamation if the BBC accused News International executives of knowingly making untrue or misleading public statements.

The Guardian also reported that the BBC had referred Farrer & Co to a disciplinary authority for British lawyers because of this aspect of Pike’s letter.

The BBC confirmed that it had “written to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. seeking advice in relation to their rules governing the conduct of solicitors.”

In Britain, solicitors are lawyers who handle most out of court and pre-trial litigation, while barristers are lawyers who handle trials and appeal proceedings in higher courts.

Pike did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment. But a representative of Farrer & Co. disputed the Guardian’s interpretation of Pike’s letter and what Pike had said to Parliament. The firm had no further comment on its accusation that the BBC had acted for commercial or political motives.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority said that in July, it had launched a “formal investigation into the role of solicitors in events surrounding the News of the World phone hacking crisis,” and that it could make no further comment while that inquiry was under way.

October 26, 2011
LIBYA: BBC crew reportedly detained, beaten up by Kadafi forces near strife-torn Zawiya

Members of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s security forces hauled a team of BBC reporters into custody, beat them up and subjected them to mock executions before releasing the trio 21 hours later, the broadcaster said on Thursday.

The crew’s ordeal began on the outskirts of the strife-torn West Libyan city of Zawiya on Monday, where they were stopped at an army checkpoint.

The men — all working for the BBC’s Arabic service — showed their identification documents and say there were subsequently detained and driven off to a massive military barracks in Tripoli.

Upon arrival there, the men claim they were blindfolded, handcuffed, and beaten with fists, knees and guns by Kadafi’s security force. Then the mock executions began.

“We were lined up against the wall,” the BBC quoted one of the three, British Chris Cobb-Smith, as saying. I was the last in line — facing the wall. I looked and I saw a plainclothes guy with a small submachine gun….Then he walked up to me, put the gun to my neck and pulled the trigger twice. The bullets whisked past my ear. The soldiers just laughed.”

Another member of the team, Feras Killani, a reporter of Palestinian origin who holds a Syrian passport, says he was beaten and accused by his captors of being a spy.

“They hit me with a stick, they used their army boots on me, and their knees,” he was quoted as saying in a transcript from the BBC. “It made it worse that I was a Palestinian…. and they said you’re all spies.”

The cameraman Goktay Koraltan — a Turkish citizen — said they all were convinced they were going to die in the end.

Peter Connors of the BBC World Service’s press office told Babylon & Beyond in an e-mail that the men have left Libya and that they’re not giving interviews.

The BBC has denounced the attack on its reporters in a statement.

“The safety of our staff is our primary concern especially when they are working in such difficult circumstances and it is essential that journalists working for the BBC, or any media organisation, are allowed to report on the situation in Libya without fear of attack,” Liliane Landor, languages controller of BBC Global News, was quoted as saying in the statement.

According to the broadcaster, a senior Libyan government official later apologized about the BBC crew’s ordeal.

Media reports also surfaced on Thursday about an alleged Iraqi national disappearing in Zawiya along with a Brazilian journalist.

–Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Photo: The BBC’s Goktay Koraltan and Feras Killani were reportedly detained and beaten by Kadafi forces earlier this week. Credit: BBC

L A Times

March 11, 2011
BBC, the Washington Post and PKK

The national interests are pursued not only by means of tanks and guns both in the US and the UK because the power of media is regarded as a crucial tool to be utilized in the defense policy of the country. Especially in cases of military operations to be conducted against any country, the public relations constitute the most important aspect of the issue. As many as the number of soldiers operating on the field, there exist those people acting to shape the public opinion worldwide just like the litheness of a machine. ‘The public opinion is tried to be captured’ with the help of diplomatic representatives, so called NGOs, charity organizations, environment clubs, child associations, archaeology institutes, corporations, newspapers and TV channels and many other official, semi-official and civil society organizations. Even though we do not approve, some photos are produced and given meaning, if necessary, as in the case of the Gulf War. Then, you watch on the TV screens the tragedies of those spurious victims swearing and testifying their countries in order to settle down theUSA. Whenever you happen to gather information about a country to be invaded, you realize that the required information is diffused excessively and freely by an invisible hand throughout the internet. The American info-production centers prepare such excessive and functional data that you may not even need any other sources to be informed. For instance, 80% of all the information floating in the net on the nuclear activities of Iran is consciously diffused by the US herself. If you want to reach the basic information about Iran, the most convenient source to be found is probably either Wikipedia or CIA World Factbook. Moreover, even some diplomats, whose countries are the enemies of America, reach some information about their country via CIA World Factbook.

Shortly, the defense (offense) is not realized by tanks and guns. Those targeting the results only through hard power are the ones possessing solely that power, and always end up with disappointment. What is played is the intelligence game in which the most important area of clash is the media, and generally public relations. Therefore, no state has the right to survive in this game if it is not well-advanced in terms of communication.

In that regard, the seemingly independent broadcasting organizations such as BBC, CNN and theWashington Post can easily transform into a spy or a soldier within quite a short time. We have experienced the most animate examples of this issue in the fight against PKK terrorism, and we are still continuing to experience. Almost all the Western media organizations reject to call PKK as a ‘terrorist organization’. In spite of the tons of protest letters sent to BBC, the so called independent British press organization, which has the full public support for its expenditures, states that they choose to use impartial language with regard to such issues. The BBC Editorial Guideline states that when reporting terrorism “other people’s language should not be adopted” and “the use of the term of terrorism should be avoided, other people should be let to characterize.”[1] Even if it seems quite nice on paper, the organization in question (PKK) is the one labeled as ‘terrorist’ and accepted as such in the laws by almost the whole world. The British Anti-Terror Law is not immune to this general rule. Therefore, there exists no situation according to which BBC would act with the fear of treating unjustly to anybody. Nevertheless, if BBC has not been able to comprehend whether PKK is a terrorist organization or not, there is something strange here. What is more, BBC has not demonstrated the same sensibility in the case of IRA, whose activities have been labeled as ‘terrorist’ by the same BBC. It has been BBC which quite easily censored the news related to IRA, and which could not stand hearing even the voices of the IRA leaders, but instead replaced them with the voices of machines. In other words, the principles of BBC Editorial Guideline do not apply when it comes to the members of IRA. For instance, in the news of 15 April 2001, entitled as “Real IRA Linked to Post Office Blast”, it was stated that the blast “is thought to have been the work of dissident Irish republican terror group the Real IRA”.[2] In another case of 26 January 2006 news, the activities of IRA were presented as “the IRA terror campaign”. In line with such examples, according to BBC, there is no doubt about Al-Qaeda’s being a terrorist organization. Almost in each and every news, the expression of “terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden” is utilized for the leader of Al-Qaeda.[3] BBC, with regard to ETA, utilizes the same approach and easily calls it as a ‘terrorist organization’.[4] The examples are so of a mass amount that it is impossible to cite each and every of them.

In short, BBC does not take it hard to label those terrorist organizations, other than PKK, as ‘terrorist organization’. With regard to those organizations, the principles of Editorial Guideline do not cause any problems. However, when it comes to a terrorist organization pouring the bloods of Turks and Kurds, BBC feels the necessity of being impartial. It seems the blood of 5.247 civilians murdered by PKK is not so enough that BBC mentions about its being not ready to call PKK as a terrorist organization. PKK is such a terrorist organization that it can bomb in front of an education institution in the middle of a crowded city in which many Kurds live. And, BBC happens to find regarding PKK as a terrorist organization as incompatible with its principles…

In this case, is BBC the only one acting on double standards?

Of course, not!

Those so called respectable newspapers and channels do not use the expression of ‘terrorist organization’ for PKK while it is utilized for Al-Qaeda unhesitatingly.

***

Keep aside the utilized language, in the last operation (Operation Sun), some broadcasting organizations, primarily BBC and the Washington Post, went well beyond this language and produced news that can be rightly regarded as being clear psychological support to PKK. While the Operation was underway, the Iraq-originated news of BBC seemed just like a PKK campaign conducted in an explicit, planned and programmed manner. To exemplify, if the news written byCrispin Thorold under the title of “Sympathy for Rebels in Northern Iraq”[5] were penned by the PKK, there would be not much of a difference. Firstly, when you look at the photos published in the newspaper, you can think of the Iraqi town of Ranya as a town in the US. In the photo, the SUVs of the newest models, a wide motorway and a peaceful town were quite successfully portrayed. The mountain covered with snow was so successfully displayed in the photo that the ordinary town of the north part of Iraq resembled a skiing center in Canada. Considering all these, one tends to think that the image to be created should be the image of civilized members of PKK living peacefully among the civilized people. Moreover, no Ranyanian is troubled with the PKK. On the contrary, according to Mr. Thorold, PKK is quite popular and welcomed in Ranya. “In Ranya, local people have got used to their neighbors in the PKK”, says the ‘journalist’ of BBC.One man with whom Mr. Thorold talked states: “I like the PKK. They are very good people. They look after people here. The PKK are fighters but they are not dangerous people like other people, like Islamic people. Like Osama bin Laden.” The British journalist told with one man in enormous Northern Iraq without mentioning his name, and, this one man praised PKK in an unbelievable manner. What is strange here is that this ‘one man’ used the expression of ‘dangerous’ for the Islamic people. Then, is this ‘one man’ non-Muslim?

Another person with whom the British journalist told is again unnamed one middle-aged man. This middle-aged man states: “The Turkish government wants to attack all the Kurdish people and not just the PKK. Turkey just wants to make things complicated here in the Kurdish region of Iraq.” The British journalist does not give the name of this middle-aged man, but does not hesitate to add: “That view is shared by many local politicians…” The third man with whom BBC told in this region again does not have any name. The person is presented as an elderly man in the news. This elderly man says: “The PKK are human beings like us. They just want to stay in their country. The Turkish government is like Saddam Hussein’s regime. In the south ofTurkey they cannot even study their own language. The situation is getting worse. We just want it to improve and for there to be peace.”

How is it possible to mention about the good will and independent journalism of BBC after seeing such expressions? If we, by stating to have told with three unnamed people, publish those writings praising Al-Qaeda and make a comparison between the British government Saddam Husain, how would be the reaction of London to such condemnation? By the way, let’s to remind, the article ofThorold was just only one example that can be regarded as BBC’s explicit support to PKK.

***

The Washington Post

The Washington Post was among the newspapers ‘supporting’ PKK during and after the Operation. The news entitled as A Kurdish Society of Soldiers[6], written by Joshua Partlow and photographed by Andrea Bruce, constitutes on its own such an excellent example that it can serve as the basis of the book to be prepared for the course on the issue of how to support terrorism with media. Partlow portrayed PKK as ‘a Kurdish movement and army seeking for justice’. What is more, he presented PKK as a civilized movement far from the violent culture of the Middle East, and went even to a point to state: “They relate their struggle to those of the American revolutionaries who fought the British crown.” The Andrea Bruce’s camera tried to create an image of poor but proud people who are romantic, civilized and in a struggle for right. The journalists claim to follow the operation with PKK terrorists for 5 days. I say ‘they claim to’ because there is no sign of clashes in their photos. In the writings of Partlow and the photos of Bruce, instead of a harshly devastated Zap region, there exist the terrorists of PKK who stand to challenge Turkey and behave so calm and romantic to feed a little bear with baby bottle. Additionally, Partlow noted that the ‘guerrillas’ of PKK received no salaries. It is obvious that Partlow regards PKK members not as terrorists, but as laborers who should get salaries in return for their jobs.

Especially Andrea Bruce’s photo showing a member of PKK feeding a little bear with a baby bottle should be analyzed more closely. Of course, Bruce did not put the expression of ‘terrorist’ under this photo, too. This person called as ‘A PKK rebel’ smiles while feeding the baby animal with the compassion of a mother. He has a Kalashnikov put on the rocks, but Bruce stated that PKK is a self-sufficient society, and bears no resemblance to the rest of Iraq. Within such a portrayal, the one looking at the photo either feels sorry for PKK or admires it.

In another photo, Bhoz Erdal is displayed. The note made by WP is as such:

“The Turkish army could not capture any of our territory, could not get one of our bases, our weapons or even a scrap of nylon.”

WP states that these words belong to “the PKK commander”. Again, he mentions neither the expression of terrorism nor the sign of “terrorists”. As if there existed a legitimate army in before us (!)

Conclusion

The US sometimes acts as such. When the balances are thought to have broken down, she puts some amount of weight in one side of the teeter-totter. Such amount is placed sometimes in the Turkish sides, sometimes in the side of the terrorist. It has been proven as such in the Operation Sun as well. When Turkey showed the signs of going out of control, the number of anti-Turkey news began to increase in the Western media. The attempts to present PKK as a pleasant-romantic people’s movement increased substantially. While the Turkish general staff was distributing the press, someone was ensuring the balance with the photos of dead women, of ‘pleasant terrorists’ feeding baby bear. While BBC was diffusing the news that PKK got the support of all the Kurds,Turkey was trying to ‘enlighten’ an enormous operation by means of short statements. While even PKK was working with some associated journalists, Turkey fought against PKK on the one hand, and the misunderstandings on the other.

***

We have not been able to comprehend, yet.

We still regard the fight against terrorism as the fight against terrorist.

We have stuck to the point of the number of the dead terrorists.

We are still unable to realize that the most important part of the fight against terrorism is conducted in the minds. Therefore, we are still running after the terrorists in the areas defined by the fairness of the others; and cannot jump into the stage of fight against terrorism.

For those wondering the attitudes of BBC and The Washington Post in the next operation, let me say that they will continue not to call PKK as ‘terrorist organization’. However, the question of which side to be ‘supported’ will be determined by the conditions. Nevertheless, irrespective of whichever side is supported, they will continue to rely on the Book of Editorial Guidelines.

[1] ‘Editorial Policy BBC Guidance Note’ Available athttp://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/assets/advice/reporting_terrorism.pdf

[2] ‘Real IRA Linked to Office Blast’, BBC News, April 15, 2001. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1278355.stm

[3] ‘Bin Laden Suspects Fight Extradition’, BBC News, October 22, 2001. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1613919.stm

[4] ‘Journalists in the Frontline’, BBC News, October 1, 2001. Available at:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_newas/1567324.stm

[5] ‘Sympathy for Rebels in Northern Iraq’, BBC News, October 26, 2007. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7063402.stm

[6] ‘A Kurdish Society of Soldiers’, The Washington Post, March 8, 2008. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/03/07/ST2008030703635.html

Turkish Weekly

February 12, 2011
BBC apologises to Bob Geldof over Band Aid claims

BBC admits it was wrong to have given ‘impression’ that money from charity song ended up being spent on weapons

Not many people come away from a clash with Bob Geldof unscathed. And for the BBC it has proved no different. Today, across BBC1, Radio 4 and the World Service, it will broadcast an apology to the singer-philanthropist and the Band Aid Trust he founded.

Accused by Geldof of causing “appalling damage” to the famine relief charity he founded in 1985, the BBC will admit that it was wrong, in a story broadcast in March this year, to have given the “impression” that money raised from the Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas ended up being spent on weapons rather than charity. It is a climbdown that Geldof said would “begin to repair some of the appalling damage done” to the reputation of Band Aid, and he welcomed it “on behalf of all those members of the public who have so magnificently donated to Band Aid and Live Aid over the last 26 years”.

Once, the BBC’s relationship with Geldof was very different. It was dispatches by BBC reporter Michael Buerk from famine-hit Ethiopia that prompted Geldof to record the song in the first place, and it was the corporation that broadcast the Live Aid concert in 1985.

But goodwill evaporated this year when the World Service’s Africa editor, Martin Plaut, broadcast a story featuring a former Ethiopian rebel commander who claimed that in 1985 only 5% of the $100m destined for famine relief in the northern province of Tigray reached the starving.

The BBC now admits that Assignment programme failed to clearly distinguish that in fact no Band Aid cash was diverted for arms sales – an embarrassing admission that Geldof said was a “lapse in standards” by the corporation.

An inquiry by the BBC’s editorial complaints unit stressed that Assignment “did not make the allegation that relief aid provided by Band Aid was diverted” but conceded that “this impression could have been taken from the programme” because viewers would have assumed that claims made by the former rebel applied to the money he helped raise.

The programme also carried an allegation from another former rebel that the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front had tricked aid workers into giving them money meant to buy food for the starving. The story was picked up by BBC news bulletins, including the Six O’Clock News.

The BBC said it “should have been more explicit in making it clear that the [Tigrayan] allegations did not relate specifically to Band Aid. There will be on air apologies and corrections and we are looking at the lessons that can be learnt.”

Today Sir Brian Barder, the British ambassador to Ethiopia between 1982 and 1986, said: “I welcome the BBC’s far-reaching apology to the Band Aid Trust for the seriously unfair and misleading impression given by the BBC World Service Assignment programme about alleged diversion of famine relief aid in limited rebel-held areas of the Ethiopian province of Tigray in the 1980s.

“The apology makes it absolutely clear that none of these allegations applied to the Band Aid relief effort.”

The publicity will be a blow to the BBC, just a day after world affairs editor John Simpson compared last month’s hastily negotiated licence fee settlement with “waterboarding”, arguing it leaves the corporation “at the government’s mercy”. To add to the corporation’s woes it is also facing a 48-hour strike from Friday by BBC journalists over pension changes.

The Guardian

November 5, 2010