LONDON, May 2 (KUNA) -- An independent report into the impartiality of the BBC's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Tuesday found no evidence of deliberate bias.
The review, covering the BBC's domestic public service output only, said "Our assessment is that, apart from individual lapses, there was little to suggest deliberate or systematic bias".
"On the contrary, there was evidence of a commitment to be fair, accurate and impartial".
But the report, commissioned by the BBC's governors, also said the Corporation should call terrorist acts "terrorism" in one of four recommendations to the BBC.
The BBC's own editorial guidelines say "We try to avoid the words ourselves" but does not change the word "terrorist" or "terrorism" when quoting other people.
Today's Impartiality Review said "We think they should call terrorist acts terrorism because that term is clear and well understood".
It added "While those immediately responsible for the actions might be described as terrorists, the BBC is right to avoid so labelling organisations, except in attributed remarks".
The report did find "identifiable shortcomings, particularly in respect of gaps in coverage, analysis, context and perspective" in the BBC's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Panel chair Sir Quentin Thomas said "What the BBC does now is good for the most part; some of it very good. But it could and should do better to meet the gold standard which it sets itself in its best programmes".
A statement from BBC News management responded "We are confident we have the right editorial structures and processes in place to provide high quality, impartial journalism and to ensure we continue to make progress in developing the authority and comprehensiveness of our output".
"We will study the detailed recommendations of the report and the accompanying research materials and, through the BBC's Journalism Board, we will draw up a plan for implementing appropriate recommendations, for approval by the Board of Governors", the statement added.
