Impartial BBC

From the Jerusalem Post (registration required):

A senior BBC correspondent in the Gaza Strip is reported to have told a Hamas gathering that journalists and media organizations are "waging the campaign shoulder-to-shoulder together with the Palestinian people."

The alleged remarks, by BBC Arabic Service correspondent Faid Abu Shimalla, were reported on the Hamas Web site, which said they were made at "an impressive and well-attended ceremony" earlier this month to honor some 140 Palestinian, Arab, Islamic, and international journalists and attended by Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

A BBC spokesman last night confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that Shimalla has been the Gaza Strip correspondent of the BBC Arabic Service for the past five years, but he said the BBC was unable to locate the Web site and could not comment further.

He noted, however, that Shimalla is "a senior and experienced journalist who knows the requirements for impartiality."

Is knowing 'the requirements for impartiality' just part and parcel of the profession of journalism? If so, it hasn't always hit me in the face; not even (dare I say it?) on the Bleeb. (Via Tim Blair.)