How the Balen report on coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict came about and the fight to have it published under the Freedom of Information Act

The Balen report is an internal BBC document compiled in 2004 by the senior journalist Malcolm Balen, who looked at the corporation's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It was commissioned by the BBC's former director of news Richard Sambrook following allegations of bias from both sides. Hundreds of listeners complained in 2004 when the Middle East correspondent Barbara Plett revealed that she had cried at the death of Yasser Arafat. On the other hand, allegations of pro-Jewish bias have extended even to the children's programme Newsround.

Balen looked and listened across many hours of BBC TV and radio news reports from the Middle East. What he identified, according to people who have seen his report, was that the nature of the conflict at the time – lots of bombings and violence; the fact that Israelis tended to be killed in bigger incidents, although in smaller numbers overall, than Palestinians; the demands of the news machine for continual updates from correspondents on the ground; and inconsistent use of language – fuelled the perception of bias.

The Balen report was considered by the BBC's journalism board in November 2004.

As a public body, the BBC has been obliged to consider freedom of information (FOI) requests, usually from journalists but theoretically from any member of public, since the act came into force in 2005. But the corporation has a get-out clause that allows it to refuse requests when information is deemed to be held for the "purposes of journalism, art or literature".

In 2005, a commercial lawyer, Steven Sugar, asked to see Balen's assessment but his request was turned down by the BBC on the grounds that the report directly impacted on the BBC's reporting of crucial world events and FOI legislation did not apply.

The corporation subsequently won its case at the information commission. Sugar appealed to the information tribunal, which overturned the commission's ruling in August 2006.

In March 2007, the high court judge Mr Justice Davis not only backed the original commission decision but imposed restrictions on potential appeals to the tribunal in the future.

That ruling was upheld in January 2008 in the court of appeal by Lord Justice Buxton, Lord Justice Lloyd and Sir Paul Kennedy. In May 2008, the House of Lords judicial committee allowed Sugar to take his appeal to the law lords.

The BBC's determination to keep the report secret has led to speculation that it was damning in its assessment of the broadcaster's coverage.

In 2007, the Conservative MP David Davies asked: "What is it they feel is so awful in this report?"

After Balen reported, the BBC board of governors set up a panel, chaired by Sir Quentin Thomas, to provide an external independent review of reporting of Middle East affairs. The panel's findings, published in April 2006, concluded there was "no deliberate or systematic bias" in the BBC's reporting, but said its approach had at times been "inconsistent" and was "not always providing a complete picture" which had been "misleading".

Changes implemented after the governors' review are indicative of Balen's recommendations. There is now a Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, who took up his post in June 2005 with a brief to add context to the reporting of events on the ground, and there is also a "style book" of language to be used in coverage.

The law lords' ruling has wide implications for the application of the act to public service broadcasting. The BBC has refused more than 400 requests on the same basis. But whatever the decision, it is unlikely to reduce allegations of bias against the BBC.