A complaint that a Newsnight discussion after the London bombings lacked balance has been upheld by the BBC's independent Editorial Complaints Unit.
The discussion, about the approach of the UK's Muslim community to extremism, was broadcast on July 14th. It provoked a number of complaints about bias because both the contributors to whom the issue was put expressed support for suicide bombings in Israel.
The issue was put to one of the contributors, Dr Azzam Al Tamimi of the Muslim Association of Britain, because he was on record as condemning the London suicide bombings and made a distinction between them and suicide bombings in Israel.
It was then put to another member of the panel, Asghar Bukhar of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, who had been expected to take a contrary view, but did not.
The BBC Editorial Complaints Unit noted that the programme team had expected Mr Bukhari to contest Dr Al Tamini's position but upheld the complaint because of the resulting "element of imbalance" in the discussion.
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