Syrian Refugee Sympathetically Profiled by BBC Convicted for Child Rape

A Syrian refugee who was sympathetically profiled by the BBC in 2016 has been convicted of the rape of a 13-year-old girl in Newcastle. An eight-year-old episode of “Newsnight,” the BBC’s flagship news and current affairs TV programme, has resurfaced as it featured a sympathetic piece on Omar Badreddin, who was found guilty this week of the rape of a 13-year-old girl. A former BBC journalist criticised the BBC’s handling of the case, highlighting the corporation’s apparent bias towards certain minority groups, even in the face of serious allegations. In 2016’s “To Hell and Back,” Badreddin’s family, who said they had fled the Syrian civil war, were filmed by a BBC “Newsnight” team. During the making of the piece, Badreddin was accused, and subsequently cleared, of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old in Leazes Park, Newcastle....