The BBC and bias
From Mr Mark Damazer Sir: Douglas Davis ('Why I won't talk to the BBC', 25 May) gives a thoroughly misleading impression of the discussion in which he was invited to take part on Radio Five Live. This was not about 'whether Israel is a morally repugnant society'. It was about the remark made by the UN's Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen — and not by the Five Live researcher — that the means employed by Israel in Jenin were 'morally repugnant'. The programme was a properly balanced discussion on whether Mr Larsen's terminology was valid. The Israeli viewpoint was put, even if Mr Davis himself did not wish to appear.
The rest of his article consists of a highly generalised — and unsubstantiated — attack. Let me just state, however, that his claim that we do not ask Arab interviewees tough questions is nonsense, and would be clear as such to anyone who has watched or listened to our coverage. If I cite, for example, the Today programme's interview with Saeb Erekat or Newsnight's with Amr Moussa of the Arab League in which they were challenged persistently about suicide bombings, I can assure Mr Davis that the tough questions asked in those interviews are replicated elsewhere in our output.
Mark Damazer
Deputy Director. BBC News. Television Centre, London W12
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