THE PRESS GANG report on the Panorama programme Is Labour Anti-Semitic? was published on December 7.
Press Gang found 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 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.
The Press Gang 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.
Copies were delivered 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.
Our investigation into this rogue journalism continues.
This is important work and you can underwrite this project by supporting our crowdfunded site — here.
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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 is a typo in the Press Gang pamphlet Is The BBC Anti-Labour? In the note on page 15, the figure 763 should read 673. The error 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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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.
REBECCA 
Paddy
Given that most left wing media, and that is most of the media, is incredibly biased against the right I found your article illuminating. Not about the BBC, an organisation which normally breaks its rules in favour of the left, but about you.
The country soundly and overwhelmingly rejected Corbyn’s manifesto, which was based on lies and undeliverable promises. They also rejected the idea of Communism and Socialism which has been a failed experiment for over a century.
I cannot support anyone who supports the Corbyn’s of this world and respectfully ask you to remove my name from your emailing list.
David Moffett