BBC wins legal battle over document on Mideast coverage

INTERNAL REPORT: BBC internal report on alleged anti-Israel bias not to be made public. (Getty Images)

The BBC has won a long-running legal battle over the public disclosure of an internal report on its Middle East coverage.

High Court judge, Mr Justice Irwin, threw out a request from London-based solicitor Steven Sugar that the internal report - part of an ongoing debate within the BBC about alleged anti-Israel bias - be made public.

The judge ruled that such information was held by the BBC "for the purposes of journalism, art or literature" and that under an exclusion clause in the UK's Freedom of Information Act, the corporation had no obligation to disclose it, the Guardian reported.

The BBC argued that the report was always intended as an internal review to help shape future policy on its Middle East coverage and was never intended for publication.

After a number of appeals Sugar had eventually won a ruling from the House of Lords that the case had wrongly been blocked and should be heard by the High Court.

A BBC spokesman said: "Free and impartial journalism is vital to our viewers and listeners and is at the heart of public service broadcasting. If we are not able to pursue our journalism freely and have honest debate and analysis over how we are covering important issues, then how effectively we can serve the public will be diminished.

"This was recognised by parliament in creating the 'journalism' designation for the public service broadcasters in the first place," the Guardian further quoted the spokesman.

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