Bias by omission

[Teddy Bear]

Reading the Telegraph yesterday I saw an article which reports that the British Council. which receives £180 MILLION of taxpayers money every year to promote Britain abroad, has been accused of fuelling anti-British extremism by promoting material strongly critical of the war in Iraq.

Now since this bears a strong resemblance to the BBC, I thought I'd search the BBC site to see what they were going to say on the subject.

I guess it was too tricky for them because I can't find any mention of this story. Go figure.
Paid for by the British Council, claim that UK tested cluster bombs on Iraqi civilians

By Chris Hastings, Arts Correspondent
(Filed: 25/09/2005)


The British Council has been accused of fuelling anti-British extremism by promoting material strongly critical of the war in Iraq.



MPs are furious that the council, which receives £180 million a year of taxpayers' money to promote Britain overseas, has gone as far as to commission articles that could damage the country's image abroad.

One of the pieces, entitled ''They Got Him!!!'' and published on the council's website, accuses Britain and America of using Iraq as a testing ground for cluster bombs.

Another article, "So where are the weapons of mass destruction?", blames Tony Blair and President George W Bush for "killing thousands of innocent people and destroying the oldest civilisation of the world".

Other articles are equally inflammatory, with one Jordanian writer describing Israel as a "fascist Jewish state".

Last night the council, which is headed by Lord Kinnock, the former leader of the Labour Party, responded by apologising for some of the contributions and removing all the articles from the council's website.

More than 50 articles were commissioned over the past two years by the council's Counterpoint think-tank, which was set up to generate understanding between Britain and the Middle East. The cost was understood to be £60,000.

Although many are innocuous, critics have been struck by the anti-British sentiment contained in others.

Bashir Ahmed, a Bangladeshi journalist, who is one of the project's most regular contributors, wrote: "During the occupation of Iraq, both US and UK used cluster bombs which killed hundreds of Iraqi civilians. The purpose of using these bombs was to test their efficiency, not to kill Saddam."

The same article also accuses America and its allies of capitalising on the September 11 attacks and of fuelling extremism by supporting Israel.

He wrote: "Now the USA and its allies are seen by people in general, and in Muslim countries in particular, as having capitalised on the 9/11 attacks by trying to conquer Muslim countries - Afghanistan and Iraq. The blind diplomatic support given to Israel by the US administration drives some Muslims crazy and reckless."

Other articles do not confine themselves to the invasion of Iraq. The Jordanian journalist, Natasha Twal, describes Israel as a "fascist Jewish state" in an article entitled "In search of a religion". Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP for Hendon, last night criticised the commissioning policy of the council.

"These sort of sentiments sound like the views being expressed by the extremists the Government is trying to get out of the country," he said.

"The British Council is funded by the Government to promote Britain overseas, not to promote extremist views.

"While I agree it's important for the council to reach out to the wider world, there are right and wrong ways of doing that."

Lord Janner, the chairman of the Holocaust Education Trust, said: "It is wholly inappropriate for an organisation that is funded by taxpayers' money to promote these kind of descriptions.

"As for the description of Israel as a fascist Jewish state, it is a poisonous lie, not only because Israel is the only democracy in the region, but because too many of its people were destroyed by a fascist regime. The British Council should realise that it is just as important to attack anti-Semitism as it is to combat Islamaphobia."

Christopher Wade, the director of communications at the British Council, last night apologised for the unflattering description of Israel, which was on its website until last week.

"We accept that it should not have been published and we are reviewing our procedures" he said. "The project has now ended and the articles have been removed." Mr Wade insisted, however, that commissioning the articles had been right.

"Counterpoint is a British Council think-tank which stimulates debate on cultural relations," he said. "It is impossible to explore cultural relations without listening to other people's views. Publication of these views does not imply that the British Council endorses them."

Earlier this year the council was criticised for promoting a photographic exhibition in the Middle East which claimed that some British Muslims were being driven to religious extremism by crime and racism.

13 February 2005: Racist, impoverished, violent... how the world sees us thanks to the grim images of life 'promoted' overseas by the British Council