-
The dossier that exposed BBC’s doctored Trump video also exposes BBC’s “systemic bias” against Israel.
-
BBC Arabic, funded by British licence-payers and the Foreign Office, “pushed Hamas lies.”
-
One guest who said Jews should be burned “as Hitler did” appeared 522 times in 18 months.
The BBC “pushed Hamas lies” and “minimised Israeli suffering”, according to a leaked internal dossier, which also revealed that the BBC interviewed guests with known antisemitism hundreds of times.
Throughout Israel’s war against Hamas, CUFI has highlighted the BBC’s bias. From the early stages of the war, when the BBC had a problem calling Hamas terrorists to more recent occasions when the BBC failed to reveal the terror charges of a released Palestinian prisoner in its coverage – the list of bias against Israel is comprehensive.
Now, this latest dossier further confirms the BBC’s serious problem of bias against Israel. Its focus is on BBC Arabic, which is part of the World Service, and is funded in part by a grant from the Foreign Office and through the licence fee. It is accessible throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and for Arabic speakers in the UK using the BBC App.
The dossier, reported by the Daily Telegraph, was authored by Michael Prescott, who served as the independent advisor to the corporation’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee until June. It is the same report that received wide coverage this week when it was revealed that editors of BBC’s Panorama deliberately doctored a speech by President Trump that was used to incriminate him.
In his report, Prescott raised concerns about a lack of action to address “systemic problems” of bias in BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. He claimed that BBC Arabic attempted to “paint Israel as the aggressor” and that allegations against Israel were “raced to air” without adequate editorial checks.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the memo also says the channel had “a desire always to believe the worst about Israel”, while giving “unjustifiable weight” to Hamas’ claims about the death toll in Gaza. The paper said that BBC Arabic put some pro-Hamas and antisemitic commentators on air hundreds of times.
One example is of a man who said Jews should be burned “as Hitler did” – he appeared as a guest on BBC Arabic 244 times in 18 months. Another individual described Israelis as less than human. That person appeared 522 times in the same period.
Despite this, according to Mr Prescott’s memo “there is no sign of an open admission” by senior leaders about “systemic problems” within BBC Arabic. Prescott also accused BBC Arabic of giving significant space to statements from Hamas and, consequently, of projecting a “considerably different” editorial angle to that of its UK counterpart. BBC bosses were, according to the dossier, warned about this issue but did not take remedial action. Sources indicate the dossier spans approximately 19 pages, though the full document has not been publicly released.
Speaking with the Telegraph, the former director of BBC Television, Danny Cohen, said the BBC was “not safe” in the hands of its current managers, who should “hang their heads in shame and resign”.
“Having made such serious and misleading journalistic errors, BBC executives chose to hide them from the public rather than correct the record,” he detailed. “Protecting the BBC’s reputation came before the duties and principles enshrined in the BBC’s Charter obligations. That the BBC has helped to push Hamas lies around the world and fuelled anti-Semitism at home cannot now be in doubt.”
The broadcaster also came into question earlier in the year after a BBC Two documentary titled “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone” was revealed to have been narrated by the son of a Hamas official. Ofcom described the programme’s failure to disclose information on the narrator’s father as “materially misleading”.
“It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided,” a statement read at the time. The BBC apologised after acknowledging “serious flaws” in the making of “Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone” and removed it as an available option online. The documentary aired on BBC Two and was later withdrawn following Ofcom’s findings.
