BBC spends £200,000 of licence fees on legal fight to suppress report on anti-Israeli 'bias'



A campaigner trying to force the BBC to publish an internal report on alleged bias in its Middle East coverage won the latest round of a legal battle yesterday.



The Law Lords held by a 3-2 majority that a case brought by London lawyer Steven Sugar under the Freedom of Information Act was wrongly blocked by legal rulings at earlier hearings.



The BBC is understood to have spent £200,000 on the case which has been through the Information Tribunal, the High Court and the Court of Appeal.



It now returns to the High Court for further argument.



BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen

Mr Sugar insists that a 20,000-word report by BBC executive Malcolm Balen should be published as part of a debate about alleged anti-Israeli bias.



The BBC contends that, under the Freedom of Information Act, it is exempt from disclosing information held for the purposes of 'journalism, art or literature'.



Mr Sugar said yesterday: 'I hope the BBC will now stop the legal argument and publish the report.'



If not, I am confident that my superb legal team will win the whole case in the end.



'The Balen report remains of great public interest. It has recently been claimed that the report concluded that its Middle-East coverage had been biased against Israel and that the BBC decision not to broadcast the charity aid appeal for Gaza was influenced by this.'

Mr Sugar has previously said he is prepared to take the case all the way to Europe.

A BBC spokesman said the Law Lords had merely clarified the law around the jurisdiction of the Information Tribunal and it was now a matter for the High Court.

Over the years BBC bosses have faced repeated claims that their reporting of the Arab-Israeli conflict has been skewed.

One particularly controversial incident came when Middle East correspondent Barbara Plett revealed she had cried as Yasser Arafat was close to death.

In 2004 the Israeli government wrote to the BBC accusing reporter Orla Guerin of anti-Semitism and identifying with Palestinian terror groups.

It has been suggested the BBC's recent refusal to show a charity appeal for Gaza, sparking thousands of complaints, was a reaction to these accusations.

Politicians have previously branded the corporation's refusal to reveal the report as 'absolutely indefensible' as it is in the public interest.

The corporation has also employed top barristers to fight its case over the years that the legal battle has rumbled on.