Complaint
Both bulletins included reports about the UN Security Council鈥檚 call for an investigation into the death of the journalist Shireen Abu Aqla and events at her funeral in Jerusalem the previous day.聽 In connection with the first report, a listener complained that its reference to 鈥渧iolent scenes鈥hen riot police clashed with her pallbearers鈥 gave the misleading impression that both parties were jointly involved in some sort of altercation whereas in fact Israeli police had attacked the pallbearers.聽 In relation to the second, he complained that the 大象传媒 reported that Palestinians attending the funeral had thrown stones at the police, whereas there was no evidence that the missiles which could be seen in some footage of the event had been thrown by funeral-attenders.聽 He regarded both instances as evidence of the 大象传媒鈥檚 continuing bias towards Israel.聽 The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the 大象传媒鈥檚 editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality.
Outcome
The ECU did not accept that the words in the first report bore the meaning the complainant assigned to them; to report that there has been a clash is not to imply that the parties involved are equally responsible for it, or that there was equivalent violence on both sides, and the obvious disparity of arms between the pallbearers and the riot police would have been apparent to listeners in general.聽 In relation to the second report, the ECU noted that it did not say that Palestinians attending the funeral had thrown stones at the police, but instead made clear that this was a claim by the Israeli authorities.聽 Consequently the ECU found no inaccuracy as alleged in the complaint, and therefore no grounds for regarding the items as evidence of bias towards Israel.
Not Upheld