A solicitor has lost his bid to gain access to an internal BBC report on its coverage of the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Court of Appeal rejected Stephen Sugar's attempt to overturn an earlier decision by Mr Justice Irwin that the report was exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) because the corporation held it for "purposes of journalism, art or literature".
Mr Justice Irwin had found that the Information Tribunal was wrong in law when it held that the report was not covered by the exemption and so should be disclosed to Mr Sugar.
The Court of Appeal - the Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, Lord Justice Moses and Lord Justice Munby - on Wednesday upheld that decision and rejected Mr Sugar's appeal.
The report at the centre of the case was written by senior BBC journalist Malcolm Balen and covered BBC coverage of the Middle East in 2003 and 2004.
The report was considered by members of the BBC's newly established Journalism Board in late 2004 and led to the board making a number of recommendations.
In January 2005 Mr Sugar requested a copy of the report, starting litigation which led to the case going all the way to the House of Lords before returning to the Information Tribunal, the decision of which was overturned by Mr Justice Irwin.
