Top British Broadcast Regulator Ofcom Vindicates Al Jazeera Investigation “The Lobby”
Al Jazeera’s journalism has been vindicated in four landmark rulings issued by Britain’s Office of Communications, known as Ofcom. The lengthy decisions published on the regulatory body’s website addressed a number of complaints made against Al Jazeera’s award-winning Investigative Unit, which produced the January 2017 undercover series “The Lobby.” The films made front-page news headlines across Britain and worldwide after it exposed the Israeli Embassy’s covert influence campaign to smear and attack British citizens critical of Israel and its practices—including against British Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan.
Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit covertly filmed Shai Masot, the Israeli Embassy’s then Senior Political Officer, in discussion with a British civil servant, plotting to “take down” Sir Alan Duncan. In the past Sir Alan had criticized illegal Israeli settlement activity. The threat against him cost Mr Masot his position at the Israeli Embassy, resulted in the resignation of the civil servant, Maria Strizzolo, who entertained it, and triggered a UK Parliamentary Inquiry into foreign interference in British politics that is ongoing. The Israeli Ambassador to Britain, Mark Regev, formally apologized to the British Foreign Office while Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson conceded Mr Masot’s “cover" was “well and truly blown.”
Ofcom received complaints in the aftermath of the series from a number of pro-Israeli British activists, including one former Israeli Embassy employee. These complaints levelled a range of charges against Al Jazeera extending from anti-Semitism and bias to unfair editing to infringement of privacy. In each instance, Ofcom has dismissed these charges, and the complaints as a whole without reservation.
The findings come at a time when the State of Israel is seeking to close Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem Bureau and deny its reporters access for allegedly causing “incitement.” Joining Israel in attacking the Network are at least four Arab states who have demanded the wholesale closure of Al Jazeera, amid a blockade against the State of Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based.
An Al Jazeera source hailed the Ofcom verdict: “This goes to show that no matter what Al Jazeera’s critics say, its journalism meets and exceeds the highest standards of objectivity and balance. We feel vindicated by the rulings and evermore committed to exposing human rights violations by anyone—regardless of geography, religion, or the power of their lobbies.”
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