Bowen 'breached rules on impartiality'

The BBC Trust yesterday called into question the corporation's reporting of the most sensitive news story of modern times, publishing findings that the BBC Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, had breached guidelines on accuracy and impartiality. The ruling will be seized upon by campaigners who claim that BBC News is prejudiced against Israel in its coverage of the Middle East.

But the decision to censure Bowen caused anger within the BBC, with some alleging that the trust, which oversees the corporation, was undermining the credibility of its news.

"There's no love lost between staff and the BBC Trust – we see them as a hostile body and they seem to be in competition with [broadcasting regulator] Ofcom to see who can kick us the hardest," said a senior BBC journalist.

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"The trust is in a position where it has to be seen to be critical and tough because of the dual regulatory system we have been saddled with, which doesn't work. It doesn't waste any opportunities to kick us if it can do."

Another senior news executive added: "Jeremy has got a very difficult job to do in very difficult circumstances and this does not make it any easier."

Speaking to The Independent last night, the BBC's former director general Greg Dyke said it was wrong for the trust to spend months investigating individual reports by journalists which had been compiled under pressure and tight deadlines.

"The problem is that journalism is not an exact science. I remember Jon Snow saying to me that if most of his journalism was put under that degree of scrutiny, then it wouldn't stand up. I think we all know that to be true."

The BBC said it had no intention of taking any disciplinary action against Bowen. Nonetheless, the findings were made by the BBC Trust's editorial standards committee – which includes such figures as Richard Tait, the former editor-in-chief of ITN, and David Liddiment, the former director of television at ITV – and will cause great concern within the BBC newsroom.

Bowen was censured for a piece which he wrote for the BBC website last June under the headline "Six days that changed the Middle East", attempting to give context to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by analysing the events of the 1967 Six Day War. The Middle East editor referred to "Zionism's innate instinct to push out the frontier". He wrote that Israel showed a "defiance of everyone's interpretation of international law except its own" and that its generals felt that they were dealing with "unfinished business", left over from the 1948 War of Independence.

The committee ruled that Bowen's reporting partially breached the BBC's rules on accuracy and impartiality.

"Readers might come away from the article thinking that the interpretation offered was the only sensible view of the war," it said. "It was not necessary for equal space to be given to the other arguments, but ... the existence of alternative theses should have been more clearly signposted."

A spokesman for BBC News said action would be taken to amend the website article but Bowen would not face any disciplinary measures.

"Clearly there is no consensus view of history and it is self evident that there are others who have different analysis – which of course they are entitled to."

The second finding related to a broadcast Bowen delivered on From Our Own Correspondent on BBC Radio 4 in January last year, in which he referred to a contemporary Israeli settlement, Har Homa. Bowen said the US government considered the settlement illegal.

The committee found the assertion was inadequately sourced: "The Middle East Editor had stated his professional view without qualification or explanation, and that the lack of precision in his language had rendered the statement inaccurate." It ruled the report had partially breached accuracy guidelines.

BBC News said "this has absolutely nothing to do with bias" and pointed out that the committee had accepted that Bowen's statement was informed by an "authoritative source".

Soon after the finding was published yesterday, the Zionist Federation of Great Britain told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the trust's decision was proof of BBC "bias" and that Bowen's position was "untenable".

Since joining the BBC in 1984, Bowen has reported from more than 70 countries, covering conflicts around the globe, and became Middle East correspondent in 1995. He was appointed to the new role of Middle East editor in 2005.

Speaking to this newspaper in 2006, Bowen, 49, acknowledged the suspicions he faced in his work.

"It's certainly the case that many Israelis and ... many people in the British Jewish community regard us as, if not anti-Israel actively, then certainly pro-Palestinian. I think it's unfortunate because it's not true."

But Jonathan Turner, a London barrister who made one of the complaints, said Bowen should leave his job as Middle East editor and called on the BBC to publish a correction on its website.

"If he cannot get this right, it's difficult to see what else he can get right in relation to Israel."

Adel Darwish, the political editor of The Middle East Magazine Group, said: "I don't think this will be damaging to him but I think it will increase the polarisation regarding Jeremy Bowen.

"He will be falsely applauded by the left-wing organisations, the Arabs and the anti-American groups. But on the other hand he will be seen as a villain by the pro-Israeli lobby who have a view that the BBC is biased against them."