THE PRESS GANG report on the Panorama programme Is Labour Anti-Semitic? is published today.
We find the BBC was biased in its journalism, leaving the Corporation open to the charge that the broadcast was a deliberate attempt to interfere in the General Election.
The interim report lists serious breaches of the BBC’s own Editorial Guidelines in the 59 minute programme first aired on July 10.
The Panorama programme is still available on iPlayer — the link is here.
The BBC’s Editorial Guidelines can be accessed here.
Our 16 page report — rush-released to be available before the election — cites nine separate occasions when programme-makers were in breach of the Editorial Guidelines.
On Friday, we delivered copies of the report to various media organisations in London.
A hundred went to senior managers and journalists at the BBC.
Other copies went to the Channel 4 News, Sky News, LBC, the Guardian and the Times, the Sunday Times and the Sun on Sunday.
Here’s the report’s dramatic cover.
Tomorrow (Sunday), at 2pm, a Press Gang team will leaflet BBC staff as they enter and leave Broadcasting House in central London.
Our investigation into this rogue journalism continues.
This is important work and you can underwrite this project by supporting our crowdfunded site.
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THE REPORT was published on Saturday, 7 December 2019.
The next morning, the BBC Press Office got in touch and asked for the following statement to be included:
The BBC stands by its journalism and we completely reject any accusations of bias or dishonesty. Panorama explored a topic of undoubted public interest, broadcasting powerful and disturbing testimonies from party members who’d suffered anti-Semitic abuse. We also heard from former Labour officials, some of whom defied non-disclosure agreements to speak out about their experiences inside the Party and its anti-Semitism crisis. This shows the serious questions facing the party and its leadership on this issue. The programme adhered to the BBC’s editorial guidelines, including a full right of reply for the Labour Party. John Ware is a highly experienced and respected investigative journalist, whose track record includes critically-acclaimed and award-winning reports. We reject any claims Panorama took any of the evidence out of context.
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NOTE
1 Paddy French declares an interest in this issue. A life-long Labour voter, he joined the party after Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader.
2 Much of this article is based on the work of others including The Canary, Electronic Intifada, Vox Political and Jewish Voice for Labour.
3 On December 13 the article was amended to include the statement from the BBC.
4 There are two typos in the Press Gang pamphlet Is The BBC Anti-Labour? On page 8, the number of BBC complaints was 218,000 not 2018,000. In the note on page 15, the figure 763 should read 673 — this does not affect the other figures in the note which remain correct.
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Published: 7 December 2019
© Press Gang
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NEXT
SCRIPTEASE
PRESS GANG has prepared a script of the Panorama programme — the BBC declined to make one available to us. This comes together with a detailed commentary.
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CORRECTIONS Please let us know if there are any mistakes in this article — they’ll be corrected as soon as possible.
RIGHT OF REPLY If you have been mentioned in this article and disagree with it, please let us have your comments. Provided your response is not defamatory we’ll add it to the article.
Tags: Al Jazeera, BBC, ColdType, Jennie Formby, Jewish Labour Movement, John Ware, Labour Party, Ofcom, Panorama, Seumas Milne, The Lobby
PRESS GANG 
December 8, 2019 at 9:45 am |
… in your report you write that “On other occasions, however, Ware’s bias is obvious. In the section dealing with allegations of anti-Semitism in Liverpool (Charge 9) he states as fact that merely asking if someone comes from Israel is anti-Semitic. This is an absurd assertion”… It is an absurd assertion but Ben Westerman’s account has been rebutted by the member being interviewed, who stated that they asked Mr Westrman where he was from, meaning which Labour CLP, not if he was from Israel… as reported by the Canary…
https://www.thecanary.co/investigation/2019/07/19/fresh-testimony-from-labour-members-could-blow-panoramas-antisemitism-claims-wide-open/
December 8, 2019 at 9:48 am |
We also make that clear in the report — and we know that The Canary & others have said so too.