UK Politics

You may remember the origins of the mystery: a fake story from a dodgy source published by the JC last September. The article, under the byline of Elon Perry, echoed the talking points of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was alleged to be based on documents uncovered in the Gaza Strip.

It all turned out to be rubbish. After Israeli journalists exposed the nonsense, the JC announced an inquiry. The very next day – 13 September – the paper concluded its “thorough investigation”. A two-paragraph statement offered no explanation of how it had come to publish such manipulated tosh but assured readers that the paper “maintains the highest journalistic standards”. Phew. Just imagine if it didn’t.

The Leveson Inquiry sat for 100 days, produced a report of around 2,000 pages and cost around £5m. A new regulator, IPSO, was the main outcome – a body with supposedly more bite than its toothless predecessor, the Press Complaints Commission, and the power to launch investigations where there are patterns of editorial concern. It can theoretically fine publishers up to £1m.

In fact, in its 10 years of existence, it has launched no standards investigations and fined no one.

You would not guess from IPSO’s most recent statement that the successful mission to plant a story in the JC appears to have owed more to black ops than rota mishaps. Indeed, there is nothing at all about the massive Shin Bet inquiry into the affair, or the political background in Israel.

Lord Austin takes a keen interest in the BBC’s coverage of Israel, recently demanding that executives who oversaw a recent much-criticised Gaza programme “should be sacked for very serious professional and moral failings”. But of the professional and moral failings of the JC he has to date said nothing.