Orla Guerin - Accusation of Bias

Accusation of Bias

In 2004, the Israeli government wrote to the BBC accusing Guerin of a "deep-seated bias against Israel" in a report on a teenage would-be suicide bomber. A year later the Muslim Council of Britain accused the BBC as a whole of pro-Israeli bias. Guerin remained as the BBC's Middle East correspondent until January 2006, when she became the Africa correspondent. She was replaced in the Middle East by BBC veteran Jeremy Bowen who announced that he would only refer to Israel and the Palestinians rather than Israel and Palestine. Former Director General of the BBC Greg Dyke wrote: "I have no doubt that the decision by the BBC to pull their Middle East correspondent Orla Guerin out of the region and send her to South Africa was part of the normal rotation of BBC news correspondents around the world. However it was pretty bad timing to announce it within days of Director General Mark Thompson's visit to Israel where he had a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon".

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