BBC responds to Panorama complaint
On Monday 18 January 2010, the BBC broadcast ‘A Walk in the Park’, an edition of the documentary series Panorama narrated by Jane Corbin that focused on recent developments in east Jerusalem. Just Journalism submitted a complaint to the BBC about the portrayal of an incident where an altercation between Israelis and Arabs resulted in a Palestinian man, Ahmad Qaareen, being shot. The segment can be viewed on YouTube (at approximately 2:45 minutes into the clip). Read our analysis of the segment here.
Today we received a response from Daniel Pearl, the Deputy editor of Panorama. He attached a copy of the segment’s transcript in his letter which we have reproduced below. [Note: the two different spellings of Mr Qaareen’s first name are the BBC’s.]
As to our complaint that Ms Corbin’s commentary of the CCTV footage was misleading, Mr Pearl contends it was an “accurate description.” Yet the footage does more than depict a “scuffle,” which connotes a confused and disorderly fight. It shows a group of at least five Arab men pushing an unarmed Israeli man into view of the camera, whilst a second Israeli, who is armed, slowly backs away. The two Israelis then move beyond the line of sight of the camera.
Mr Pearl also contends that Ms Corbin’s commentary “lay[s] out all the known facts. It attributes each claim and clearly states the Israeli claimed he’d been attacked and was acting in self-defence.”
However, the “known facts” are treated inadequately because the photograph, which Ms Corbin says only shows Mr Qaareen “facing” the armed Israeli, in fact shows him in an aggressive posture, while the Israeli’s rifle is pointed below Mr Qaareen’s waist (see photograph below). We are only informed by Ms Corbin of the Israeli’s claim to self-defence after hearing Mr Qaareen and his son’s tearful testimony of what happened that day, coloured by images of bloodied concrete, x-rays of Mr Qaareen’s leg and the bullet casings removed from it. At no point is an Israeli – or any other eyewitness – asked to describe the incident. Nor does Ms Corbin indicate whether or not others besides the Qaareens were solicited by Panorama for their testimony. The overall effect is to lend credence to the Palestinian’s version of events while diminishing or discrediting the Israeli’s.
In his letter Mr Pearl also takes issue with our original phrasing of how “A Walk in the Park” uses video and photographic imagery to argue that the shooting of Ahmad Qaareen was the result of settler violence in Silwan. Mr Pearl states: “[A]s you can see from the transcript, we never use the word ‘settler’…” However, Ms Corbin elsewhere in her broadcast does use that term to describe Israelis living in east Jerusalem. For instance, earlier she states: “The mayor of east Jerusalem supports the settlers moving into Arab areas of east Jerusalem.” [6:05 into this YouTube clip.]