BBC Newsnight Issues Apology on Aleppo News Piece

After two weeks of complaining and applying pressure on the BBC Newsnight team, it has offered a formal apology for its misleading news piece on Aleppo on 24 May. Its official apology:

"In an introduction to a report on the latest situation in the city of Aleppo in Syria it was stated that: “The fragile ceasefire brokered between Russia and the US in the last two months has come under renewed threat as terrorist factions like Islamic State and Al Nusra continue their efforts to regain ground.” We should have made clear that more moderate opposition groups are also fighting in the Aleppo area. The fact that the Assad government’s attempts to besiege the city was now the key military development, and the consequences of this use of force were however made clear in the story itself. When describing Aleppo , in the introduction , as “once a major stronghold of terrorists”, we should have clearly stated that this was a Russian Government position rather than a statement of fact."

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