© Velar Grant/ Global Look Press
A widely-circulated clip shows BBC home affairs correspondent Dominic Casciani reporting about British intelligence agency MI6's role in assisting Libyan forces in their abduction of former dissident Abdul Hakim Belhaj. Just 39 seconds into the report, the screen goes grey, cutting back to the alarmed presenter, Jo Coburn, who cites "technical interference" before the transmission is cut off.
Belhaj, following a long court case, was granted an apology from the UK government for its role in his abduction by Libyan forces, and the offer of £500,000 in compensation. Belhaj, a founder of the anti-Gaddafi Islamist al-Watan Party, was abducted in Thailand with his wife in 2004 and brought to Libya, where he was tortured by Gaddafi's forces during six years of detention.
Casciani noted that rather than wanting "to walk away with millions of pounds in compensation, what they [Belhaj family] wanted from British ministers was an absolute cast-iron, black and white admission that MI6 and potentially others as well were mixed up in a situation that led to their rendition and torture."
He went on to say how documents found in the aftermath of Colonel Gaddafi's downfall in 2011 "very clearly pointed a finger at MI6 at having provided intelligence, this tip off which led to Belhaj and his wife being taken to Libya."
As Casciani speaks the feed begins to falter.
Cutting back to an-opened mouth Coburn in the studio, the presenter interrupts Casciani as she says the report would have to end there because of signal failure.
The clip was picked up by British former ambassador Craig Murray, who suggested Coburn was using non-verbal communication to interrupt the controversial reports.
Casciani, however, hit back at claims the BBC had purposely cut him off, saying:
His denial however didn't stop social media users from speculating about the BBC's relationship to the British security services.
Reader Comments
Tony Rooke refused to pay a TV licence fee because the BBC intentionally misrepresented facts about the 9/11 attacks, he alleged. It is widely known that the BBC reported the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 over 20 minutes before it occurred. WTC 7 was a 47-story skyscraper that was not hit by a plane on 9/11 but collapsed at free-fall speed later that day. So Rooke said the BBC had to have had prior knowledge to a terror attack making them complicit in the attack. He presented the BBC footage to the judge along with a slew of other evidence, and the judge agreed that Rooke had a reasonable case to protest. Rooke was found not guilty and he was not fined for failure to pay the licence fee. How to Turn The tables on BBC TV Licence Goons [Link]
I don't pay a TV License fee. I have a certificate that says we are exempt, despite having a couple of TV's and a computer. It's a disgusting totalitarian system that needs an overhaul.
John Pilger: The BBC is, and has long been, the most refined propaganda service in the world...[Link]