BBC’s Bias “Pushed Hamas Lies Around the World”

The BBC’s Arabic news service chose to “minimise Israeli suffering” in the war in Gaza so it could “paint Israel as the aggressor”, according to an internal report by a whistleblower. The Telegraph has the story.

Allegations made against Israel were “raced to air” without adequate checks, the memo says, suggesting either carelessness or “a desire always to believe the worst about Israel”.

BBC Arabic, which is funded partly by a grant from the Foreign Office, gave large amounts of space to statements from Hamas, making its editorial slant “considerably different” to the main BBC website even though it is supposed to reflect the same values, managers were warned.

The BBC also gave “unjustifiable weight” to Hamas claims about the death toll in Gaza, which are widely accepted to have been exaggerated for propaganda purposes, and incorrectly claimed the International Court of Justice had ruled that genocide was taking place.

Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, said it was now clear that the BBC was “not safe” in the hands of its senior managers and they should “hang their heads in shame and resign”.

In an article for the Telegraph, he said: “Having made such serious and misleading journalistic errors, BBC executives chose to hide them from the public rather than correct the record.

“Protecting the BBC’s reputation came before the duties and principles enshrined in the BBC’s Charter obligations.”

He added: “That the BBC has helped to push Hamas lies around the world and fuelled antisemitism at home cannot now be in doubt.”

The BBC was plunged into crisis on Monday when the Telegraph disclosed that a Panorama documentary doctored a speech by Donald Trump which made it look as though he had incited the Capitol Hill riots.

As a result, the BBC is facing questions over trust, with Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, and the broadcasting regulator Ofcom facing growing calls to launch an inquiry into alleged BBC bias.

Concerns about coverage of the war in Gaza were raised in the same 19-page letter to the BBC Board that highlighted the “manifestly misleading” Trump documentary.

Michael Prescott, who until June was an independent adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee (EGSC), was so appalled by the BBC’s lack of action over multiple instances of bias that he wrote a devastating memo that was sent to all BBC Board members and is now circulating in Government departments.

In a copy of the letter seen by the Telegraph, he says that BBC Arabic gave a platform to journalists who had made extreme antisemitic comments.

One man who said Jews should be burned “as Hitler did” appeared as a guest on BBC Arabic 244 times in 18 months.

Another man who described Israelis as less than human and Jews as “devils” appeared 522 times in the same period.

Earlier this year, BBC Two broadcast a documentary called Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone which it later admitted was narrated by the son of a Hamas official. The broadcasting regulator Ofcom found that the film was “materially misleading” and ordered the BBC to broadcast a statement with the findings. The film was also removed from iPlayer.

Despite years of complaints about the BBC’s reporting of the Gaza conflict “there is no sign of an open admission” by managers about “systemic problems” within BBC Arabic, Mr Prescott said in his memo.

BBC Arabic, which is part of the World Service, is funded mainly through the licence fee, but also receives support from the Foreign Office through its World2020 programme.

Worth reading in full.