BBC News: Lancet Report too old to mention!!!

On Wednesday, 26 October 2005 the BBC News website in "US death toll in Iraq hits 2,000" reported:

" Unofficial estimates put Iraqi civilian deaths since the war at about 25,000."

In this article there is NO MENTION of probably the most serious and scientific study conducted on the subject by some of the world's leading epidemiologists and published by one of the most respected scientific publication, the Lancet.

After reading the BBC News article, I wrote to some BBC journalists and I made a complaint through the BBC website.

I didn't get any reply from the journalists but I got this staggering email from the BBC News Website as an answer to my complaint:

Thanks for your email. We did cover this report in detail when it was released - see link below. The figures it details are now around one year old where as those produced by Iraq Body Count are continually updated.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3962969.stm

Thanks again for getting touch.

Regards
BBC News Website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/

UPDATE. I wrote again to the BBC and once again their answer is outrageous!

Many thanks for your comments and your interest in the BBC News website.

We have reported widely on the Lancet report, at the time of publication of the study and since.

We do not usually use the Lancet's figure in standard news stories because it is so far out of line with other studies on the same issue. There are also some questions over the validity of the Lancet study in the case of measuring casualties in Iraq. The technique of sampling and extrapolating from samples has been criticised because the pattern of violence in Iraq has been so uneven.

In this particular news story, the Iraq Body Count figure is used because it is the most recent study on the issue.

Once again, thank you for your interest in the BBC News website.

Regards
BBC News Website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/