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Just Journalism Newsletter 20 November 2009  This Week · Analysis of heavy focus on Dispatches programme in The Guardian · BBC alters misleading online article on stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians · Harry's Place blog posts an analysis by Just Journalism about recent coverage of Hizbollah in The Observer    The Guardian on 'Dispatches: Inside Britain's Israel Lobby' This week, The Guardian led the British media interest in Channel 4's recently aired Dispatches documentary, 'Inside Britain's Israel lobby'. No other media outlet dedicated as much discussion to the programme, which examined the alleged influence of pro-Israel individuals and organisations on Britain's politics and media. On Monday, 'Inside Britain's Israel Lobby', presented by Daily Mail journalist Peter Oborne, was broadcast. In the words of Channel 4, the programme sought to investigate 'one of the most powerful and influential political lobbies in Britain', which 'aims to shape the debate about Britain's relationship with Israel and future foreign policies relating to it.' The Guardian of the same day published an opinion pieceauthored by the programme makers and was the only broadsheet to cover the story before the documentary aired. This interest may have been linked to the fact that the newspaper's editor, Alan Rusbridger, appeared on the programme itself, in a segment that scrutinised the relationship between Israel advocacy groups and the media. He described scrutiny and pressure on outlets like The Guardian as "off the scale". In their article, 'Friends in high places', Peter Oborne and James Jones argued that 'the pro-Israel lobby, in common with other lobbies, has every right to operate' but that 'it needs to be far more open about how it is funded and what it does'. Many of the charges made were echoed in an article published on the same day in the news section, by The Guardian's Middle East Editor, Ian Black.  In 'Pro-Israel lobby group bankrolling Tories, film claims', Black listed many of the findings outlined in the programme. He also contended that, unlike in the United States, where Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer controversially examined the same subject in their book, 'The Israel Lobby and U.S. foreign policy', 'Britain's pro-Israel organisations have been subjected to far less scrutiny.' Click here to continue reading.   BBC amends skewed story on lack of peace talks On Monday, BBC News Online published an article which failed to state that peace-talks had not been resumed because the Palestinians refused to negotiate without preconditions, and implied that Israel was still building settlements in Gaza. The article was later amended to include the Palestinian refusal to begin peace-talks, while the reference to Gaza was removed. The original article stated that the Palestinians would seek to have an independent state recognised by the UN due to 'a lack of progress in restarting peace talks.' No mention was made of the fact that the Palestinian Authority refuses to participate in peace-talks unless there is a total freeze in Israeli settlement building. The fact that the Palestinians are 'upset over Jewish settlements in the West Bank' and 'have also expressed disappointment with US failure to put enough pressure on Israel to halt the construction' did not make clear to the reader that they, unlike Israel, were refusing to restart peace talks. The updated version of 'Israel rejects Palestinian move', however, included the following paragraph: 'Israel has offered to restrict the growth of settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, but the Palestinian Authority has demanded that all construction is halted before it will again attend peace talks.'  Furthermore, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev was also quoted, outlining Israel's position that Palestinian pre-conditions had stalled negotiations. Click here to continue reading. Harry's Place blog publishes Just Journalism analysis of Observer coverage Read our analysis on Harry's Place of The Observer's recent coverage of Hizbollah, by Peter Beaumont, Mitchell Prothero and Carole Cadwalladr. Key observations include: · Hizbollah are depicted as primarily a defensive force, in spite of their aggressive profile  · Israel is depicted as a key factor in Lebanon's volatile history, via the use of an alcohol abuse metaphor · Hizbollah's rocket attacks on the north of Israel and their effects on the civilian population are heavily downplayed Read the full analysis here. For more information or to contact us, please visit www.justjournalism.com Just Journalism does not endorse the views and opinions presented in the  articles, documentaries and programmes referred to above.