Another BBC apology

Noru Tsalic, Times of Israel blogger

The Jewish Chronicle reports another BBC apology...

...this time over a Radio 4 report in early August which inaccurately asserted that 'administrative detention' (detention without trial) "has previously been used only against Palestinian militant suspects".

That's inaccurate for the simple reason that it's untrue. 

The apology - sent in the form of an email - came about because the complainant, blogger Noru Tsalic, persisted in his complaint. The BBC's complaints department originally rejected his complaint (as is their way).

The BBC spokesman, overturning this rejection, wrote:

“We have discussed the matter with senior editorial staff at the radio newsroom and they see your point.
“The script shouldn’t have referred to administrative detention only being used against Palestinian militant suspects.
“We are sorry for this.”

The patience and persistence required to bring about such an apology is admirable. 

Quite what results from it by way of a wider apology on Radio 4 isn't at all clear to me though. Will a public apology ever be given?

And, oddly, BBC Watch - spotting a written form of the same inaccuracy on the same day - complained to the BBC and achieved an immediate correction (posting about it the following day). You can read the corrected article here, and here is the message the BBC placed beneath that article:

Correction: This story has been amended to make clear that administrative detention has previously been used against Jewish suspects.

So complaining to the BBC can work. 

Given BBC Watch's instant result on exactly the same point, why then did the BBC put Mr Tsalic through all that? 

I'm at a complete loss to explain that.