The establishment of an independent inquiry into the BBC’s coverage of Israel, the Middle East and Britain’s Jewish community is a welcome but depressing moment.

Welcome, because the BBC’s handling of these most sensitive and important topics becomes more egregious by the day.

But depressing because there should not have been any need for such an inquiry. All organisations make mistakes; what matters is how they deal with and learn from them.

In its responses to our reporting, the BBC seems determined neither to learn nor to react appropriately. It is at once defensive and arrogant.

As we have consistently made clear when highlighting these issues, it is only the BBC’s enemies who benefit from such behaviour. As one of our great national institutions, the BBC needs to be trusted, a byword for impartiality.

That means something very different from — as seems to be the case now — merely echoing the shibboleths of a modern left worldview which is based on a narrow minded smugness and sense of righteousness.

The Guardian is of course a very different type of news organisation, free to adopt whatever bias it wishes — but it often shares that same default position.

It should understand, however, that with that outlook comes scrutiny of its behaviour, not least from its own staff, as Hadley Freeman makes clear in this week’s JC.

If the Guardian wishes to demonise Israel and antagonise British Jews, so be it. But it cannot then complain when its stance provokes anger and condemnation.