Deforestation Watch, a pro-palm oil industry NGO, is crying foul over a BBC programme called The End of the Jungle hosted by Angus Stickler which ran on the network on Jan 7.

The editor of Deforestation Watch's website in an e-mail to the media, said the programme contained serious allegations against Malaysia and its palm oil.

Ross Spencer said that the BBC documentary is "erroneous and grossly misrepresents the facts in respect of palm oil cultivation in Malaysia".

The internationally reknowed broadcaster which prides itself for its ‘accuracy' and ‘impartiality' in its reporting, however, was severely wanting in its coverage of the palm oil and deforestation issue, said Spencer.

NONEIn documentary, host Angus Stickler accused the Malaysian government and the palm oil industry of "laying to waste the last remaining rainforests of Borneo."

He went on to describe it as a "corporate land grab" and claimed that "only three percent of the primary rainforests of Malaysian Borneo remained."

An examination of the facts, Deforestation Watch said, would show that "Mr Stickler appears to have a propensity for gross exaggeration and hyperbole."

'Gross exaggerations'

It cited an FAO survey which stated that Malaysia is one of the few remaining heavily forested tropical countries with 61 percent of total land area of 20.06 million ha covered in natural forest.

"This is evidence that Mr Stickler's claim is far from accurate," said Deforestation Watch

On the issue of the displacement of native land in Borneo, the NGO charged that Stickler had erroneously claimed that native people are being displaced with impunity.

azlanA 2007 Federal Court ruling affirmed the "customary ownership of land to natives who have lived on it for generations, and it cannot taken from them without compensation".

The court said this when it ruled that a family of the Kedayan group in Sarawak had rights over land they used and that they should be compensated.

The government had taken over the land in the 1990s to for oil exploration.

Deforestation Watch also cited the unprecedented move by the Malaysian government to grant ownership titles to farming lands to about 20,000 indigenous families to improve their lives.

"The fact that indigenous tribes could successfully seek relief in a court of law in Malaysia disproves Mr Stickler's wild claims that 'they are being driven off their land with impunity'!"

Deforestation Watch called upon the BBC Trust to look into this gross violation of the  broadcaster's editorial guidelines by a less than impartial and ethical reporter in Mr Stickler.

The BBC Trust is the independent governing body set up to ensure that the BBC adheres to its strict code of editorial impartiality.