BBC: Beach deaths 'not Israel's fault'

Dear Steve Herrmann, Editor, News Online,

Despite “Human Rights Watch says the deaths were likely to have been caused by Israeli shelling” and “United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for a full independent inquiry into the incident”, you decided to title your article “Beach deaths 'not Israel's fault'” and to open it with these three paragraphs:

“Israel is not responsible for a blast that killed eight Palestinians enjoying a picnic on a Gaza beach last Friday, Defence Minister Amir Peretz says.

He said an inquiry had shown an Israeli shell could not have caused the blast, as had initially been alleged.

The Israeli probe is based on TV film of the aftermath and shrapnel taken from the injured treated in Israel.”

Interesting also “BBC's Nick Childs in Jerusalem” ’s comment

“The speed with which Israel concluded its investigation underlines the sensitivity of the incident - but whether its findings change any minds is another matter, says the BBC's Nick Childs in Jerusalem”

Childs’ concern – it would seem – is not to know the truth of what happened and to light political and legal responsibilities “but whether its findings change any minds”.

It really takes lots of discipline and hard work to reach such a level of “objectivity”.

Regards,
Gabriele Zamparini
PS You can keep ignoring complaints coming from your readers (read: those who pay your salary), but this doesn’t make your work any better. Does the BBC have an external, independent Ombudsman? If not, why?