BBC ‘Has Serious Questions to Answer’ Over Misleading Israel Coverage According to New Report by Former Television Director
The BBC’s former director of television has compiled a 60-page report that concludes the broadcaster has “serious questions to answer” over its repeated misreporting of the Israel-Hamas war.
Danny Cohen, who worked at the BBC for eight years, including as director of television from 2013 to 2015, compiled and edited the report based on research from CAMERA U.K. and CAMERA Arabic. The two organizations are local branches of U.S. media monitoring group Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.
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Cohen co-wrote the forward to the report with former BBC governor and House of Lords member Baroness Ruth Deech. In it they write that while “honest mistakes” can happen while reporting, “The ‘mistakes’ are almost always in the anti-Israel direction. It would not be possible to compile a similar record of anti-Palestinian errors.”
“Whenever the corporation is faced with the choice of whose account or narrative to believe, it seldom points in Israel’s direction,” they continue. “For Hamas in this war, proof is rarely necessary. For the IDF and Israel, proof is rarely enough.”
The report, which catalogues dozens of errors made by the broadcaster in its reporting of Israel, accuses the BBC of making “false and damaging claims about Israel’s conduct of this war” and producing “misleading broadcasts and social media output” among other criticisms.
Among the numerous errors examined in the report are:
an incident in which a BBC news anchor misrepresented a Reuters report saying on air that the IDF was “targeting” medical teams and Arab speakers at Shifa hospital in Gaza. The Reuters report actually said that the IDF forces in the hospital included medical teams and Arabic speakers;
an incident in which a different BBC news anchor speculated on air that only Israel could be responsible for a blast that had just occurred in the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. It later emerged the blast was a result of a Palestinian rocket misfire which only hit the hospital’s carpark;
the BBC’s failure to sanction sports host Gary Lineker after he potentially broke the broadcaster’s own social media guidelines by sharing a tweet calling for Israel to be banned from international sporting events;
the BBC’s refusal to refer to proscribed terrorist organization Hamas as “terrorists” in its reporting and repeatedly presenting Hamas statements as verified fact, for example by credulously quoting the Hamas ministry of health, without explaining to audiences they are a proscribed terrorist organization.
Cohen’s report comes amid increasing disquiet about the BBC’s reporting of the Israel-Hamas war as well as its response to antisemitism.
Another report published earlier this month, compiled by a team of lawyers and data scientists, found that the broadcaster had breached its own editorial guidelines over 1,500 times when it came to its reporting of Israel and showed “widespread anti-Israel bias.”
Meanwhile in June more than 100 Jewish creatives signed an open letter accusing the BBC of double standards over a contributor’s antisemitism after it declined to take any action.
The new report calls for an independent enquiry into the BBC’s reporting of the Israel-Hamas war.
A BBC spokeswoman said: “The Israel Gaza conflict is a polarising and difficult story to cover and we understand there are a range of views. The BBC has focused on reporting the conflict impartially, bringing audiences breaking news, insight and analysis, and reflecting all perspectives.”
“While we do not recognise the overall characterisation of our journalism in this report, we will of course always look at anything raised with us with care and attention.”
Read Cohen’s full report here.
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