The prison story from Israel the BBC chose to report – and one it didn’t - by Hadar Sela

On the same day that Ehud Olmert was released, another former politician began serving a two-year prison sentence....Despite its usually lively interest in legal cases and criminal investigations involving Israeli politicians and public figures and although this story has been ongoing for over six months, the BBC News website has not found it at all newsworthy.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
03 July '17..

On June 29th the BBC News website published an article titled “Ehud Olmert, Israel’s jailed ex-PM, to be released early” on its Middle East page. That report remained in situ until July 2nd when it was replaced by a follow-up article titled “Ehud Olmert, Israel’s jailed ex-PM, is released early“.

The article tells readers that:

“Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been released from prison on parole after serving two-thirds of a 27-month sentence for fraud.”

And:

“Earlier, the Israeli parole board said Olmert had undergone a “significant rehabilitation process” in prison and his behaviour had been largely “impeccable”.”

It does not clarify to audiences that Israeli law allows the possibility of reduction of a sentence by a third if certain conditions are met and so Olmert’s case is not exceptional. Neither are readers told of the terms of the parole.

If the appearance of two BBC reports on this topic in four days seems odd, it is worth noting that the BBC News website frequently displays a penchant for covering domestic Israeli stories involving public figures and legal or criminal issues.

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