Law Lords and the Balen Report
The BBC yesterday lost a case at the House of Lords involving freedom of information and the 'Balen Report', an internal report about the BBC's Middle East coverage which was written in 2004.
This is a long-running legal saga which has often been written about on this blog (for example, here and here) and has not yet ended.
Some of the headlines (like this and this) on this decision are misleading, so it is important to be clear about the implications of the latest ruling.
Yesterday's Law Lords decision was not about the merits of whether the report should be published. It was about the procedural legal matter of whether the Information Tribunal (which supported publication) has the jurisdiction to rule on such cases, where the Information Commissioner has previously decided that the request was outside the realm of FOI in the first place because it involved information held by the BBC for the purposes of journalism. Material of this kind lies outside the Freedom of Information Act, and the BBC has argued that the Balen Report falls into this category.
The Lords determined (against the views of the Court of Appeal and the High Court) that the Tribunal does have the right to consider such cases, so its ruling in favour of publication is valid. The substantive arguments on whether the report should be made public can now move on to the High Court, assuming the BBC maintains its stance.
A 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~27~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
The decision says that the BBC's only remaining challenge in the High Court is that the Tribunal decision was wrong on a point of law (para 38 of http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.com/pa/ld200809/ldjudgmt/jd090211/sugar-2.htm). So I'm not sure there are any further "substantive arguments" to be had.
Complain about this comment
Since 2004 the BBC having been trying to supress the finding that BBC Middle East Coverage of Israel has been severely derogatory and unbalanced.
Not only has Israel's point of view been given disproprtionately less air time than the corresponding Palestinian militant factions like Hamas and Hezbollah and their supporters. The content of Palestinian media propaganda, accusations and untruths has been broadcast unchallenged and uncorrected by the BBC , and untrue opinions and statements have been broadcast as fact when subsequently been proven to be false and misinformed,often without subsequent retraction.
Four and a half years on, despite it being clear that the FOI applies to this report and that the BBC has tried to hide behing an exclusion clause that this report amounts to journalism, the BBC corporation have been defeated by the Law Lords ruling that the Information commissioner tribunal was correct to rule that the report should be released.
Yet the BBC seem intent on being stone faced or trying to wriggle away from this jusdgement having spent seriously significant sums in trying to cover up a substandard editorial policy against Israel.
Over many years, the BBC has embarrassingly fought in court against a lone individual who has bravely pursued the point of principle that the BBC is a public body and as such should operate an open and transparent freedom of information policy.
It is surely time for the BBC to come clean and stop spending public money trying to stubbornly defend what is an indefensivble position.
Complain about this comment
Oh come on. You would have lambasted any other organisation which resorted to counting how many angels can dance on the point of a pin. You expect Government to disclose papers on policy formulation. Why not apply the same to the BBC. Has the gamekeeper become a poacher!
Complain about this comment
Ah - The Balen Report. It has taken on mythical status hasn't it? I called for it to be published but like everything else in this country..........
Oh and poster Number 2 - I had little sympathy with your view years ago.
And after the Israeli authorities allegedly stopped "independent" media reporting on any activities in Gaza recently - including from the BBC - I have even less now.
I fortunately missed Mr Richard Thomas, The Information Commission head the other day on the Today programme.
Keep your personal information safe and secure was presumably the message?
He is certainly keepng my late mother's well secure.
So how come I am being pestered by someone to report via The GP Patient Survey form? The second copy received in the post this AM.
You get nothing for nothing Great Britain.
Now publish the Balen report I would say Ms Ashley.
Complain about this comment
Sorry SteelPulse.
But Israel's reporting restrictions on reporters movement from its side alone were within a war conflict zone, what is the BBC's excuse?
Complain about this comment
Why is the BBC once again wasting tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of taxpayers money.
What 'principle' is being upheld?
Just what is the BBC hiding?
Complain about this comment
If this report was as harmless to the BBC and its reputation as it claims, then I would guess that the BBC would have released the document, if only to allay suspicions of anti-Israeli bias.
With the BBC's consistent refusal to publish the Balen report, then it makes me suspect that the BBC may have shown a unhealthy bias against Israel, especially in its reporting on the Israeli - Palestinian conflict(s).
Complain about this comment
Hoist with one's own petard?
I hope you enjoy your privatisation, BBC!
Kind regards
Complain about this comment
Jane, you mentioned that the "case will go to the High Court if the BBC maintains it stance", what do you mean by that?.
Does this mean that the BBC is looking to publish portions of the report?, is the BBC going to publish the entire report?, what other stance could the BBC take apart from releasing the document?.
Complain about this comment
Have all the Editors decided against updating articles or even publishing new articles?. It seems that with the constant negative stories about Labour, that the BBC has decided that us tax payers should not be allowed to hear anything else about the economic and criminal mismanagement of the country by Labour.
I might be wrong, but the evidence seems to support my opinion.
Complain about this comment
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
View these comments in RSS