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Commons leader Jack Straw has defended the BBC's decision to broadcast an interview with a Taleban spokesman. The report had been "informative" and "good" and it was "important to see the nature of these people", he told MPs. Tory MP Julian Lewis had demanded a ministerial statement on the broadcast of "unalloyed Taleban propaganda". But Mr Straw said "independence of journalism" was one the BBC's strengths and it must not be directly influenced, "particularly" by ministers or MPs. "The difference is that in Taleban-controlled territory, anybody who steps out of line is killed. "We are a democracy, and we are...

The BBC has come under fire from the Conservative Party after broadcasting an interview with a spokesman for the Taliban. His face hidden by a veil, Dr Mahammed Anif told BBC2's Newsnight that the Taliban would throw foreign armies out of Afghanistan. He also dismissed British and American claims to be rebuilding the country as an "excuse" to invade. Other members of a Taliban group in Helmand province were also filmed, vowing to fight to the death against British troops who are seeking to bring security to the area. Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox denounced the interviews as "obscene" and...

BBC admits: We are biased on religion and politics Internal corporation memo on ‘impartiality’ summit leaked to British media exposes truth on BBC bias Published: 16:10 LONDON – The British Broadcasting Corporation has been struggling for several years against criticisms and claims of biased reporting concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and distorted coverage of the global fight against terror. Following a diplomatic incident with Israel, the BBC appointed an editor known for his objective reporting, however, the true stance of the corporation’s editors remained the same. An internal memo, recently discovered by the British media, revealed what the BBC has been...

An internal British Broadcasting Corporation memo reveals senior figures admitted the national news agency was guilty of promoting left-wing views and anti-Christian sentiment. News of the memo, reported by British media, comes as the BBC continues to struggle against claims of biased reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and distorted coverage of the global fight against terror, reports the Israeli YnetNews.com. The admissions of bias were made at a recent "impartiality" summit the BBC held. Most executives admitted the corporation's representation of homosexuals and ethnic minorities was unbalanced and disproportionate, YnetNews.com said. The British news agency, the report said, leaned too...

The White House has given details of 10 major terror plots that President Bush says have been foiled by the US and its allies since the 11 September attacks. Mr Bush cited the disrupted plans in a speech, designed to boost support for the so-called war on terror. They include a plot to use hijacked aircraft to hit the US East and West coasts and to attack Heathrow Airport. But the sketchy details provided by the White House make it hard to assess how serious or advanced the plans were. Most of the plots have been previously reported in some...

A 17-year-old has died after explosives he appears to have been trying to make in his Oslo flat detonated. The blast blew out some windows in the block and left the victim's 19-year-old brother injured. Three other friends escaped unhurt. Norwegian police said internet instructions on how to make explosives and some powder were found at the flat. Police are questioning those present but are not reported to think they had links to any extremist groups. Other apartments in the three-storey block were evacuated after the blast. "At the scene we found written instructions on how to make explosives and...

A 17-year-old has died after explosives he appears to have been trying to make in his Oslo flat detonated. The blast blew out some windows in the block and left the victim's 19-year-old brother injured. Three other friends escaped unhurt. Norwegian police said internet instructions on how to make explosives and some powder were found at the flat. Police are questioning those present but are not reported to think they had links to any extremist groups. Other apartments in the three-storey block were evacuated after the blast. "At the scene we found written instructions on how to make explosives and...

uesday, July 26, 2005 British Bias Corporation Every so often I get into an online or telephone discussion with British friends or just folks who hang on the same lists I do about the BBC. I frequently hear from them how the BBC is not biased against Israel. I almost always do a double-take. These are generally intelligent, reasonably open minded, fair minded and often liberal people. They sincerely believe what they are saying. I will admit any day of the week that I am a news junkie. I spend an inordinate amount of my free time keeping up on...

Requires Realplayer. It just may be the greatest documentary ever made! History will have to judge. If you NEVER watch anything else about 9-11 and the Iraq war, you have to see this ... (only thing is it'll take about and hour just to watch the first part). It's a documentary that was broadcast all over Europe by the BBC on 11-03-04 about Bush and exactly how he and Tony Blair (England's Prime Minister) have created the illusion of a large, organized terrorist group. Tho NOW there is, but unbelievably, there was NO Al Qaeda group before 9/11!! Tho a...

LONDON, Dec. 3 - The BBC, Britain's public service broadcaster, acknowledged Friday that it had been tricked into broadcasting an interview with a man pretending to be a spokesman for Dow Chemical, who claimed that the company had taken the blame for the disaster in Bhopal, India, in 1984. The hoax, contradicting Dow Chemical's rejection of any responsibility, came on the 20th anniversary of the catastrophe, when waves of lethal gas escaped from a chemical plant in Bhopal, in central India, killing more than 3,500 people and injuring thousands more. At the time, the plant was owned by the Union...

This is news? A few days ago Barbara Plett, a BBC Middle East correspondent, broadcast a report about the airlifting of Yassir Arafat to Paris. She informed her listeners: “When the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose above his ruined compound, I started to cry … without warning.” She went on to talk about Arafat’s “ambivalence towards violence” (an interesting phrase for the man who effectively invented modern-day terrorism) and to castigate Ariel Sharon for having “demonised” the man responsible for a campaign to murder as many Israeli citizens as possible. For some reason, Ms Plett’s words have prompted...

As with most British people, my first impressions of America were formed by television. For my family in the 1960s, this meant the BBC alone. We had one of those "snobbish" televisions, not unusual at that time, that could not get the only other channel, ITV. And the BBC in America at that time meant Charles Wheeler. With his highly educated voice, shock of white hair (I think it was white even then), serious spectacles and face of lean intelligence, he was the perfect posh broadcaster. I believed every word he said. I still think Wheeler is an excellent journalist...

McCartney speaks out against war Sir Paul wrote a song, Freedom, after the 11 September attacks Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney has criticised the UK government for being too hasty in going to war in Iraq. "Maybe our government went in too fast with the Americans," he told the weekly Portuguese magazine Visao on Thursday. "It would have been better if the UN had been together," the 61-year-old singer continued. "Now it's become very bloody with Iraq, it's very difficult." The singer, who is currently touring Europe, opens the Rock in Rio music festival in Lisbon on Friday. Sir Paul...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The independent businessman who was beheaded in Iraq wrote colorful e-mails to family and friends at home, foreign dispatches that showed a 26-year-old with limited Arabic skills traveling solo through dangerous parts of the country. The January e-mails, in what now seem to be chilling references, also describe Nicholas Berg's work near the Abu Ghraib prison — "a notorious prison for Army and political prisoners," he wrote — and his brief detention by Iraqi police. His killers cited the abuse of prisoners by U.S. personnel at Abu Ghraib as the reason for Berg's killing. The abuse was...

In southern Spain, once the centre of an Islamic civilisation in Europe, the Muslim community has appealed to the Vatican to be allowed to pray alongside Christians in what was once the Great Mosque of Cordoba.It is one of the oldest buildings in the Islamic world and one of the most beautiful. The first thing I saw was a courtyard full of orange blossom. A fountain played in the middle. I felt that I was already back in the Middle Ages making my way towards the entrance of the mosque itself. The interior is stunning - a symmetrical forest of...

One of the men accused of the Washington sniper killings has been found guilty of murder, terrorism, conspiracy and a firearms charge. John Allen Muhammad, 42, now may face the death penalty. He was convicted of shooting dead Dean Meyers at a petrol station in Manassas, Virginia, on 9 October 2002, and murdering "at least one other person". He may also face other charges relating to the killings, which left 10 dead and three wounded. Along with his alleged accomplice, 18-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo, he is also accused of three murders and three counts of wounding in the state of...

The man, according to BBC Journalist Andrew Gilligan, to have told him that some parts of the so-called 'dodgy dossier' has gone missing, according to Sky News.