The BBC has always adopted a default position that is heavily biased in favour of Israel. Failure to adopt an even handed approach also extends to BBC documentaries; notably the flagship programme, Panorama, in its coverage of Middle East issues.  Look no further than the output from Jane Corbin. The BBC proudly advertises Corbin’s credentials as an outstanding journalist with a track record for impartiality and honesty.  Evidence of her esteemed credentials is cited in the numerous news stories she has worked on over the years which have included Osama bin Laden and the US War on Terror.

In short, Corbin is promoted as one of the BBC’s finest journalists. Nothing could be further from the truth. Much of Corbin’s coverage displays an undeniable anti Arab, anti Muslim bias and is heavily weighted in Israel’s favour. Sadly Corbin is not an atypical BBC presenter. A key forerunner of this style is John Simpson, who like Corbin, has been at the forefront of espousing an unmistakable anti Arab, anti Palestine current.

Evidence of Corbin’s inherent bias can be found in numerous Panorama programmes with “Living with the Ayatollah’s” being typical of its genre.  From the outset the intention was to present Iran and Press TV, an Iranian News channel in an extremely negative light and is littered with anti Iran rhetoric with no attempt at balanced coverage. Indeed in the BBC generally it is impossible to find any kind of balanced reporting on Iran. Much of the output is devoted towards demonization of the Iranian Regime and Iranian people generally. Falling in line with this anti Iran default position, Corbin does not disappoint.

Further evidence of Corbin’s bias can be found in the documentary, Death on the Med which covered the Mavi Mamara, a humanitarian aid ship delivering aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.  In August 2010, Israeli commandoes stormed the ship and nine people on board were murdered.   Far from presenting an even handed account of how nine people came to be murdered, Corbin’s aim from the start involved whitewashing the Israeli attack.  No mention was made of the fact that invasion of the ship in international waters is illegal under international maritime law. No mention too of the fact that many passengers on the ship had their media equipment confiscated.

Not only did Corbin set out to demonise the activists but she used an Israeli TV crew headed by Israel  Goldvicht  to promote the Israeli perspective that the  mission was principally a life saving one. Crucially Corbin omitted to mention that video footage used in the documentary was selectively edited by Israeli officials.

Corbin also went out her way to demonise and smear the IHH (İnsan Hak ve Hürriyetleri İnsani Yardım Vakfı ) a  Turkish Relief organisation which she dubbed  a Muslim fundamentalist organisation. Corbin conveniently omitted to mention that the only country where IHH is deemed a terror group is in Israel.  

In interviewing other activists on the ship Corbin sought to play down their role or present them as ideologically motivated radicals bent on destroying Israel.  One of the interviews carried out with Ken O Keefe a prominent human rights activist (which he secretly recorded) cast him as an extremist/ radical protagonist with an anti Israel agenda. The foremost narrative developed by Corbin was that the Israeli raid was entirely legitimate and Israel’s response was proportionate and measured.  A glaring omission too is the way that Corbin dealt with the shooting of unarmed activist, a 19-year-old Turkish-American Furkan Dogan who was shot five times at close range which Israel claims was in self defence even though not one of the activists was armed.

Finally and this is the most significant point of all. Nowhere in the rebuttal by the BBC over accusations of bias in the Death on the Med documentary is mention made of the fact that   Corbin is married to, wait for it, John Cradock Maples, who upon retiring from House of Common politics, and became Lord Maples in the House of Lords. The crucial fact about Corbin’s husband is that while a Conservative MP, John Maples served as president of the pre eminent influential Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI). Operating within the Conservative party, CFI has exercised a disproportionate amount of influence on UK foreign policy towards Israel. Set against this context, it is difficult to imagine how Corbin could have exercised journalist integrity in any stories covering the Palestine/ Israel conflict. Time and time again Corbin has shown she lacks journalistic integrity when covering stories which have an Israel dimension.

The public mood in Britain is moving against Israel and yet the BBC, a publicly funded body, does not reflect this shift in perspective. The BBC seems to be wedded to the position that Israel should be always supported and championed. Criticism of the coverage of the Palestine/Israel conflict continue to mount, but the BBC has shown itself not to be listening, for now anyway.

Tamara Taylor, Senior Correspondent, Medhaj News. She is based in London