"I just felt that it was no longer possible to remain silent and not protest," world-renowned pianist Evgeny Kissin said about his open letter to BBC Director General Mark Thompson, criticizing the media giant’s alleged habit of on-air favoritism.
"I don’t know what my letter has accomplished, if anything, but my motivation to write it came from the dramatic increase of anti-Israel bias and slander in some of the prominent British media in general and the BBC in particular in the last few years," Mr. Kissin explained to me when I asked him about the reactions to his outrage relating to a BBC report in December, 2009.
The report and the arguments that followed had centered on Israel’s alleged harvesting of Palestinian organs and blood for future transplants, which Kissin regarded as biased reporting. He accused the organization of having lost "its position of truth and responsibility," the very virtues he, as a young pianist growing up behind the Iron Curtain during the cold war, had admired and come to regard as a "model of democracy and human rights."
It was a remarkable outcry by the Russian-born pianist, and – since 2002 – UK citizen, who is not known to be an extrovert, but usually makes headlines by playing sold-out concerts worldwide.
"Yes, I do believe it is right to describe my letter as an ‘outcry’, both on a humanistic level and from a Jewish perspective," Mr. Kissin said, confirming his position as a defensive opposition against the political tendencies he perceives as injustice. He further sways political influence on his audience by posting a selection of political books, articles, and transcripts of selected speeches by renowned intellectuals and writers like George Orwell, Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Brodsky, Yelena Bonner, Oriana Fallaci, Walid Shoebat, and Salma Abdallah in the library of his fan club’s web site.
Ever since his debut in the west in 1987, when he performed Tchaikovsky’s "First Piano Concerto" with the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan at the Berlin Festival, Kissin - then hailed as a ‘wunderkind’ - has continued to shine in unusually memorable performances, such as the 1997 first-ever piano-only recital at the BBC proms. Today, 23 years after his Berlin debut, the 38-year-old pianist still has critics around the world raving about his mastery.
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Article comments
1 - Paul
Amazing article ! Couldn't agree more. Bravo !
2 - Herbert Peckenpaw
It's really better for artists to just be 'non-political' in the final analysis, because you always take the risk of insulting someone. People want to listen to music so as to have a break from the jagged political discourse that lately has polarized our world. Although Mr. Kissin thinks the BBC is not fair, there are many people who feel the BBC is the bastion of fairness and it is where THEY GO to get their news. It's obviously not a small number of people either. I would warn Mr. Kissin to take that into consideration before he disses such an important and world-renowned network! I can tell you it's a turn-off to me that I should have to listen to Mr. Kissin's political ideology. He's not running for office and he's not a personal friend, so he should park his politics at the door so as to let everyone enjoy his brilliance as an artist.
HB Peckenpaw
Los Angeles, CA
3 - Susanne James
I totally disagree with you.
You state "Mr. Kissin thinks the BBC is not fair, there are many people who feel the BBC is the bastion of fairness and it is where THEY GO to get their news. It's obviously not a small number of people either."
Well, I can assure you there are many who are wholly dissatisfied with the BBCs propoganda - they are not always 100% right despite their so called high status.
To cite just a few articles of UNFAIRNESS:
JUNE 25, 2010 BBC Commemorates Palestinian Nakba With a Bit of Fakery and Propaganda
JUNE 8, 2010 Huwaida Arraf's Flotilla Fable on BBC
FEBRUARY 23, 2010 BBC and New York Times Omit Coverage of Palestinian Corruption Story
FEBRUARY 1, 2010 Stephen Sizer Complains to Police About Blogger
JANUARY 21, 2010 BBC Panorama Distorts the Facts About Jerusalem
JANUARY 5, 2010 BBC Removes Misinformation on US, Israel, Geneva Convention
AUGUST 25, 2009 Updated: BBC Corrects Misrepresentation of Israeli Politician's Proposal
AUGUST 6, 2009 An Inside Look at the BBC Ruling Against Jeremy Bowen
AUGUST 5, 2009 BBC Corrects: Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini Targeted All Jews, Not Only Immigrants
JULY 17, 2009 Breaking the Silence and the British Media
MAY 7, 2009 UK’s Independent Defends Unethical Journalism
APRIL 15, 2009 Press Release on Key BBC Ruling Against Mideast Editor Jeremy Bowen
MARCH 27, 2009 Charges of IDF "Wanton Killing" Crumble
FEBRUARY 20, 2009 BBC Acknowledges Mistaken Reference to Holiest Jewish Site
FEBRUARY 4, 2009 The McGirk Affair: Claims of Cold-Blooded Executions Not Credible
JANUARY 23, 2009 Updated: UN Agency Condemns Israel, Enables Terror
JANUARY 6, 2009 Norwegian Doctors in Gaza: Objective Observers or Partisan Propagandists?
JANUARY 2, 2009 In Gaza Conflict, Context is Key
NOVEMBER 26, 2008 BBC’s Web Site Conveys an Anti-Israel Message
NOVEMBER 5, 2008 UPDATED: Mohammed Omer's Allegations Raise Questions
AUGUST 28, 2008 BBC Corrects Misrepresentation of Iran Nuclear Program
JULY 2, 2008 Terrorist Attack in Jerusalem: Bias in Euro Headlines
JUNE 12, 2008 BBC's Mark Urban Feeds anti-Israel Prejudice
MARCH 13, 2008 FoxNews Cites CAMERA on BBC's Fake Footage
MARCH 11, 2008 BBC Corrects False Report
FEBRUARY 26, 2008 Selective Reporting by the BBC
FEBRUARY 5, 2008 The BBC and the Bombers in Dimona
AUGUST 17, 2007 BBC Amends Faulty Article on Iraqi Jews, Acknowledges Farhud
JULY 11, 2007 BBC Radio Adopts the Arab Narrative of the Six-Day-War
JUNE 13, 2007 Border-line Improvement at BBC "Obstacles" Series
JUNE 10, 2007 BBC: Obstacle to Understanding on Refugees
JUNE 10, 2007 BBC: Obstacle to Understanding on Water
JUNE 7, 2007 BBC Web Site Pushes Arab Narrative of Six-Day War
MAY 31, 2007 BBC: Obstacle to Understanding on Jerusalem
JANUARY 15, 2007 BBC Editor Sets Tone for Biased Reporting
JANUARY 3, 2007 B'Tselem's Annual Casualty Figures Questioned
DECEMBER 2, 2006 UPDATE: Peace Now Map Based Only on Palestinian Claims
SEPTEMBER 7, 2006 Questioning the Number of Civilian Casualties in Lebanon
JULY 29, 2006 BBC Headline Falsely Charges Beirut Airport “Destroyed”
JULY 28, 2006 A BBC Fable
JULY 17, 2006 BBC Does Not Give "Full and Fair Account" of Middle East Conflict
JUNE 29, 2006 BBC News or BBC Propaganda?
JUNE 29, 2006 Update on Media Coverage of Prisoners' Document
JUNE 12, 2006 Israel Should Not Be Presumed Guilty of Gaza Beach Deaths
APRIL 6, 2006 CAMERA ALERT: BBC's Hardtalk Host Harangues Halevy with Hostile Questions
MARCH 10, 2006 BBC Partially Revises Biased Timeline on Web site
DECEMBER 19, 2005 Truth Elusive in BBC’s (and PBS's) The Elusive Peace
NOVEMBER 28, 2005 CAMERA Prompts BBC Correction on Rafah
NOVEMBER 4, 2005 On BBC Website, Israeli Noise More Serious than Palestinian Terrorism
SEPTEMBER 13, 2005 Media Excuses Palestinian Destruction of Synagogues
MAY 12, 2005 BBC Correspondent Demonstrates Bias
MARCH 21, 2005 BBC and Ha'aretz Journalist Whitewash Palestinian Incitement
FEBRUARY 18, 2005 BBC Admits to Mistakes, Apologizes
DECEMBER 15, 2004 Hamas Preacher Says BBC Correspondent is 'Hamas Man'
JULY 26, 2004 Can the BBC Change?
MARCH 3, 2004 BBC-WATCH: BBC Jerusalem Correspondent Misleads on Settlements
FEBRUARY 2, 2004 BBC WATCH: BBC's Outdated Map Misleads
JANUARY 29, 2004 BBC Under Fire
DECEMBER 24, 2003 BBC-WATCH: Palestinians Attack Egyptian, But BBC Blames Israel
NOVEMBER 7, 2003 BBC Questions Israel's Legitimacy
OCTOBER 27, 2003 BBC-WATCH: BBC on Oslo
OCTOBER 9, 2003 BBC-WATCH: News Hour Provides Platform for Attack on Israel
OCTOBER 1, 2003 Double Standards in Headlines
SEPTEMBER 18, 2003 BBC-WATCH: Julian Marshall Shows Disdain
SEPTEMBER 2, 2003 BBC-WATCH: BBC's Warped Timeline
SEPTEMBER 1, 2003 BBC Shapes 'News' to Fit Views
AUGUST 26, 2003 BBC-WATCH: BBC Injects Anti-Israel Focus in Baghdad-U.N. Story
AUGUST 22, 2003 BBC-WATCH: BBC Touts Hamas Line
AUGUST 20, 2003 BBC-WATCH: BBC Blames Israel Again
AUGUST 15, 2003 BBC-WATCH: The BBC on Egyptian Anti-Semitism
AUGUST 15, 2003 New Web Feature: CAMERA Inaugurates BBC-Watch and Washington Post-Watch
FEBRUARY 5, 2003 BBC's Profiles Obscure Reality
DECEMBER 5, 2002 BBC's News Misjudgement
NOVEMBER 26, 2002 The World Reports Objectively on Christian Support for Israel
JULY 1, 2002 The World's Version of Mideast History
NOVEMBER 16, 2001 EYE ON THE MEDIA: Return of the British Mandate
OCTOBER 22, 2001 BBC Softpedals Terrorism
OCTOBER 8, 2001 The BBC, the British Press, and the Attack on America
OCTOBER 5, 2001 BACKGROUNDER: Jewish Settlements and the Media
JULY 12, 2001 CAMERA Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal European Edition: "The Real Story on Israel"
JUNE 1, 2001 A Look at BBC's Headlines
MAY 24, 2001 BBC Correspondent Actively Supports Palestinian War Against Israel
APRIL 19, 2001 More One-Sided Reporting by CNN, Reuters and BBC
MARCH 30, 2001 EYE ON THE MEDIA: The BBC Goes to War
NOVEMBER 12, 2000 BBC Provides Platform for Palestinian Propaganda
OCTOBER 22, 2000 BBC Reporter Beaten by Palestinian Mob
OCTOBER 12, 2000 Media Update on Temple Mount Riots
NOVEMBER 6, 1998 CAMERA OP-ED: Seeing Through the BBC
JUNE 26, 1997 Media Err on Jerusalem and Israel
Mr Kissin cares deeply about his heritage and has every right, in my opinion, to speak out if he so wishes. His renowned status as one of the greatest classical pianists in the world today does not mean he has to stifle his beliefs and stay mute.
Mr Kissin has made a bold and brave statement and I, and many others, salute him.
AM YISRAEL KHAY VEKAYANM - THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL LIVE AND WILL LIVE!