Last week we launched our petition demanding a parliamentary inquiry into BBC coverage of the Middle East. Despite a series of requests and complaints, the BBC has consistently refused to engage with its critics on this issue.

Its sole public response — a reply to an open letter sent by 36 respected members of the Jewish community at the beginning of September — took six weeks, and was only released last week after we launched our petition.

That reply has rightly been described by those who signed the open letter as “obfuscation” and “vacuous”, with BBC Director-General Tim Davie insisting that it is in the public interest for the BBC to repeatedly offer a platform to Abdel Bari Atwan, an Islamist who has praised terrorism.

Now it seems that Dateline London, a programme on which Mr Atwan has been a regular panellist, has been cancelled. Its editor’s response was to blame “a particular group, government [or] lobby groups”. Readers will draw their own conclusions as to who he was referring to.

Suffice to say that, as we argued last week, the BBC is a vital national institution and it is in its own and everyone’s interests for it to be seen to be striving for impartiality, rather than swatting away constructive criticism with contempt.

Nothing makes the case for a parliamentary inquiry greater than the BBC’s behaviour.

You can sign the petition here.