BBC should apologize for fabrications
Broadcaster spread disinformation on Chinese issues, says spokesman
AChinese foreign ministry spokesman said on May 24 that the British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC, has no sense of right and wrong, and follows no principles, adding the media agency owes Chinese people “a sincere apology”.
Spokesman Zhao Lijian made the remarks when asked to comment on a recently released investigation report by retired judge John Dyson. It says a former BBC journalist, Martin Bashir, had obtained by “deceitful” methods an interview with the late Princess of Wales, Diana. However, the BBC failed to uphold a high standard of credibility and transparency and exerted pressure on the “whistleblower” to cover up the truth.
Zhao said that many people believe BBC’s reporting about geopolitics and ideologies can only be more ugly and hypocritical, given what it has done pertaining to interviews with members of the British royal family.
He said that the BBC, which boasts of “independence” and “credibility”, is still involved in the trick of lying and cheating, and even more blatantly at that. The BBC has fabricated and broadcast huge amounts of disinformation on China-related issues, including those about Xinjiang, Zhao added.
Just like the Diana story, BBC, instead of reminding or criticizing its journalists about violations of work ethics, has helped to cover it up, Zhao said, adding BBC has no sense of right and wrong.
“BBC owes the Chinese people a sincere apology,” said the spokesman.
Noting that an additional eight million pounds ($11.3 million) have been appropriated by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and
Development Office for the so-called “response to disinformation” by BBC international channel, Zhao said China hopes the fund can be dedicated to purging lies and disinformation by the BBC.
On May 22, the BBC’s former director-general Tony Hall announced he has resigned as the National Gallery’s chairman following the inquiry into the BBC’s 1995 Panorama interview with the late Princess Diana.
“I am very sorry for the events of 25 years ago and I believe leadership means taking responsibility,” Hall, who was director of news during the time of the interview, said in a statement.
The Met Police has said it will assess the contents of the inquiry to ensure there is no “significant new evidence” to support a criminal investigation. Prince William and his brother Harry have both criticized the BBC’s failures surrounding the interview with their mother.
Prince William said the interview made a “major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse”, adding it has “since hurt countless others”.
The report published on May 20 by the independent inquiry said the BBC fell short of “high standards of integrity and transparency”.
Former BBC reporter Bashir had acted in a “deceitful” way and faked documents to obtain the interview while the BBC’s own internal probe in 1996 into what happened was “woefully ineffective”, the inquiry said.
The inquiry found Bashir mocked up fake bank statements that falsely suggested individuals were being paid for keeping the princess under surveillance.
He later showed the fake documents
to Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, to win his trust to gain access to Diana and persuade her to agree to give the interview.
The BBC carried out its own investigation into the issue in 1996, but it “fell short of the high standards of integrity and transparency”, according to the inquiry.
Bashir has stepped down from his role as the BBC’s religion editor, the corporation confirmed in May.
Meanwhile, senior British officials said on May 21 that the latest inquiry into the BBC’s interview with Princess Diana raised “very serious questions” about the corporation.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he was “obviously very concerned” about the findings of the inquiry.
British Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said the inquiry “raises some very serious questions” and “issues around governance” within the BBC.
“I think an apology is a start, but I
don’t think it’s the end of it,” he told Sky News.
Michael Grade, who was BBC chairman between 2004 and 2006, said the BBC’s “cover-up” had been worse than the behavior of Bashir, who later got lauded and promoted in the BBC.
“It raises the question in your mind, how many more cover-ups are there in the files of BBC journalism that we haven’t been told about?”
He also accused the BBC of “arrogance” in the cavalier way in which it behaves. “It starts with their default position, whenever challenged, that they are not and cannot ever be wrong.”
In a debate on May 24 at the House of Commons, lower house of the British Parliament, lawmakers slammed the BBC for its attempts to cover up the scandal as well as for the promotion of Bashir after the interview.
But for many, the BBC’s fall from grace did not come as a surprise. In its recent report alleging “systematic rape” in China’s Xinjiang autonomous
region, the BBC sourced only dubious, one-sided verbal claims, including those from sources who have given contradictory statements, without any credible confirmation or corroborating evidence.
Earlier this year, the “new compelling evidence” uncovered by the BBC alleging “forced labor and assimilation” in Xinjiang has proved to be old clips from China’s national broadcaster, which the BBC manipulated to suit its own cause.
In another bid to distort truth about China, the BBC cooked up socalled “human-rights violations” in the Chinese city of Wuhan with a video of an anti-terrorism drill.
“It is no use arguing that Bashir was just one ‘rogue’ reporter — the corruption of journalistic ethics (of the BBC) went right up to the top,” said The Spectator, a weekly British magazine. Following the crisis, the BBC’s current Director-General Tim Davie offered “a full and unconditional apology”.