The BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen faced
calls to quit tonight after he was criticised for breaching
the broadcaster's rules on accuracy and impartiality in two
reports about the Arab-Israeli conflict.
An inquiry found that a reference to 'Zionism's innate instinct
to push out the frontier' in an article for the BBC's website
breached guidelines.
In addition, a suggestion that Israel was 'in defiance of
everyone's interpretation of international law except its
own' was said to have been 'imprecise'.
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A separate radio broadcast by Bowen also led to a complaint
and was criticised by the trust.
The initial claims by Bowen were made in a website report
entitled 'How 1967 Defined the Middle East'. It sparked two
complaints.
Bowen's online article, published last year, put the present-day
Israeli-Palestinian conflict in context by explaining the
events of the 1967 Six Day War.
But the committee said he should have done more to make clear
that there were other views on the matter.
