BBC radio stations mangle Samir Kuntar story – part one

h/t HG

Listeners to BBC radio channels on December 20th were provided with inaccurate information in items relating to the attack on a building in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, in which Samir Kuntar and several others were killed.R4 6pm news 20 12

BBC Radio 4’s ‘Six O’Clock News’ (from 07:32 here) not only upgraded Kuntar’s Hizballah ranking whilst simultaneously downgrading the outfit from designated terrorist organisation to “militant group” but also misled listeners with regard to the fact that Kuntar’s role in the 1979 terror attack in Nahariya was proven in a court of law.  

“A leading figure in the Lebanese militant group Hizballah has been killed by a rocket attack in the Syrian capital Damascus. Samir Kuntar had previously spent thirty years in an Israeli prison for his alleged role in the killing of four people. Hizballah said Israel was behind the rocket attack. An Israeli minister welcomed his death but didn’t say whether his country had carried it out.” [emphasis added]

Kuntar was convicted of murder, attempted murder and kidnapping and sentenced to five life sentences plus 47 years imprisonment. 

It is of course difficult to believe that the BBC would use the inaccurate term “alleged” to conceal from its audiences the fact that due legal process resulting in conviction had taken place when reporting on a terrorist previously imprisoned in the UK.

Resources:

BBC Radio 4 contact details

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