Radio reporter takes uneven approach to interviewees
There are a number of statements made in this interview by the Hamas spokesman that are factually inaccurate, but they go unchallenged. For example, he claims that only “one or two people on the Israeli side” were killed by rockets. He also states that the rockets “injure people – they do not kill”. The interviewer fails to challenge these statements despite the fact that they are known to be untrue.
Furthermore, the journalist challenges the Israeli government interviewee several times, yet not a single question is put to the Hamas spokesman.
AREA OF CONCERN: Impartiality
“We must rigorously test contributors expressing contentious views during an interview whilst giving them a fair chance to set out their full response to our questions.”
Transcript of BBC Radio 4 The World Tonight broadcast
The World Tonight, Rita Chakrabarti, 18 January 2008
Rita Chakrabarti: This week has seen an escalation in violence between Israel and Hamas militants operating in Gaza. A series of rocket attacks on Israeli towns resulted today in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City which left one woman dead and more than forty people injured. The target was the Interior Ministry building of Gaza’s Hamas-run government. A wedding was taking place nearby and many of those hurt were women and children. The BBC’s Hamada Abu Qammar was in Central Gaza today and he went to the hospital where the injured were taken.
Hamada Abu Qammar: According to the medical sources, one woman – one old woman was killed in this attack and more than forty people injured. I was talking to the injured people who were there. They told me we were dancing at the wedding and suddenly we hear an explosion and everything in front of us was dark. I also talked to the mother of the groom. She was completely shocked. She told me from wedding day, it will be like a funeral day.
RC: Israel has said that it was targeting Hamas fighters in this attack. From what you saw, was there any evidence that they were there?
HAQ: According to what I have seen in the hospital, there were no militants there. Most of them were children, women, old men and young people who were dancing in the street. They belonged to one family. According to witnesses also in the place, the building has been attacked before. It was empty. It has been attacked by Israeli air craft before.
RC: What sort of area is it?
HAQ: It's actually in the heart of the Gaza strip. It is a residential area where you find high buildings, 40-50 apartments. But exactly in front of the building - the wedding was there.
RC: And these Israeli strikes have been going on throughout the week.
HAQ: The situation is really sharply escalating during the past week. Daily, we are witnessing at least two or three Israeli air strikes in the Gaza strip.
RC: The BBC's Hamada Abu Qammar. Well late last night, Israel closed the border with Gaza. The UN Agency providing relief aid to Gaza said today it had been unable to do so and this would only worsen an already dire situation. Earlier, I spoke to Israeli government spokesman Arye Mekel. I started by asking him what the reason for today's attack was.
Arye Mekel: This is a reaction to the ongoing barrage of rockets by Hamas which is going on every day now - particularly against the city of Sderot in southern Israel.
RC: Would you say that your attacks are proportionate to the provocation?
AM: Of course. Hamas has decided that they will continue to target civilians. Today, in fact, one of the rockets hit a nursery school and again, one of these miracles, if you will, prevented a terrible disaster. And we have to react.
RC: But the death toll is very unequal. Over thirty Palestinians have died in the last few days. Israelis have been injured but there haven't been deaths.
AM: It's not about that. Those Palestinians that have been killed are terrorists and they are paying the price.
RC: But Mr. Mekel, there are innocent people who are being killed and injured as well.
AM: Unfortunately, in a war this happens. When they shoot, they attack civilians. There is nobody else in Sderot but civilians. So when they decide to attack our civilians, what should we do? The ball is really in the Hamas court. If they stop it, it will be quiet. That is it.
RC: Israeli government spokesman, Arye Mekel. Well Ghazi Hamad is a Hamas spokesman. Does he feel that the ball is in Hamas's court?
Ghazi Hamad: I don't think Israel is interested in stopping their military action against our people. They say that the rockets are the reason but if you look along one year, maybe one or two people were killed on the Israeli side. But on the Palestinian side, there are more than 600 people were killed. What happened in Gaza over the last week was very shocking for all the Palestinians. People are killed daily in Gaza: Women, children, old men, innocent people - they are killed daily. All the time Hamas has stopped launching the missiles against Israel but maybe in the last two days, they started to fire missiles as a reaction to all the Israeli crimes in Gaza. And we have no tanks, we have no aircraft, we have no missiles like Israel. People make primitive missiles that injure people - they do not kill. Because of this, I don't there is a kind of balance between the military tools of the Palestinian people and what is found on the Israeli side. There is no comparison.
RC: Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad.
RC: Well the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suffered another setback this week when one of its coalition partners pulled out. The party led by hardline right-winger Avigdor Liberman walked out in protest at the start of peace talks with the Palestinians on core issues including borders, Jewish settlements and the fate of Jerusalem. So are these domestic problems of Mr. Olmert's in any way linked to the sudden flare up of violence in Gaza. Joining me on the line now is Yossi Mekelberg who is an associate fellow of the Middle East programme at Chatham House. Thank you very much for joining us Mr. Mekelberg.
Yossi Mekelberg: Good evening
RC: Do you think that Mr. Liberman's withdrawal from the coalition is linked to events in Gaza?
YM: Well I don't think it is necessarily. You just heard from the spokespersons, the Palestinian and Israeli, which actually epitomizes the tragedy of what is going on there. You know both of them actually accuse each other. Both of them are not blameless for what's going on in Gaza. You see, on the other hand, the question is it's not just how many Israelis are killed by the Qassam rockets but the fact that 140 rockets were fired in the last two days. On the other hand, the Israelis are overreacting in many cases and the death toll is so high and the tragedy of all of that is that a week after the visit by George Bush, when the area should become more conducive to peace and the peace process to begin with and the peace agreement at the end of it, it is less conducive as a result of the ongoing violence. I think that what Mr. Liberman represents is actually one side of the extremists that are not interested in peace. They don't intend to deal with the core issues and he left government. I don't think we should actually shed tears that Liberman left the Israeli government.
RC: So do you think that is just part of the general effect of the peace talks on Israeli politics?
YM: I think it is bound to have impact because the minute that Israel and the Israeli government with the Palestinians discusses the core issues, as you mentioned yourself: the borders, security, self-determination, Jerusalem, someone like Liberman that represents the status quo and is willing actually to expand settlements - not to reach an agreement - have no place in such a government. But in the political atmosphere within Israel, it is usually an atmosphere of musical chairs. It means that other parties will be able to support others from within or from without the coalition this process. It doesn't mean that this is the end of the Olmert coalition. I would actually look more to the final Winograd Commission report that is coming quite soon that looked into the events of the war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
RC: Which will be another pressure for the Prime Minister. Yossi Mekelberg - thank you very much indeed for joining us.