Why does the BBC work with a journalist who has a history of fabrication?

Paul Martin, aka Paul Cainer, aka Sayed Anwar — officially busted in my latest major investigative piece for EI.

A journalist who produced a film defending Israel’s war crimes in Gaza for the BBC is the same man who wrote hoax stories about Palestine and Lebanon a decade ago, The Electronic Intifada has learned.

In 2002, South African-British freelance journalist Paul Martin posed as a Palestinian journalist writing from Bethlehem under the fake name Sayed Anwar. But Martin later had to admit there was no such person. Martin also sometimes uses the name Paul Cainer.

In stories written for right-wing broadsheet The Washington Times in 2002, Martin posed as a native informant reporting a “reign of terror” against Palestinian Christians by “hard-core Palestinian militants” who he claimed had “seized the Church of the Nativity” (“Exiled Palestinian militants ran two-year reign of terror,” 13 May 2002; “Arafat Aided group that besiged church,” 23 May 2002).

I’d like to again thank Tim Horgan, who very kindly put a lot of effort into research for this story. All credit to him for the original tip-off too.